WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 17 



downs and still find larks everywhere ; so that though 

 scattered abroad they probably equal or exceed the 

 starlings, who show so much more. They are by no 

 means timid, being but little disturbed here : you can 

 get near enough to watch every motion, and if they 

 rise it is only to sing. They never seem to know pre- 

 cisely where they are going to alight as if, indeed, 

 they were nervously particular and must find a clod 

 that pleases them, picking and choosing with the 

 greatest nicety. 



Many other birds exhibit a similar trait : instead 

 of perching on the first branch, they hesitate, and 

 daintily decline the bough not quite to their fancy. 

 Blackbirds will cruise along the whole length of a 

 hedge before finding a bush to their liking ; they look 

 in several times ere finally deciding. Wood pigeons 

 will make straight for a tree, and slacken speed and 

 show every sign of choosing it, and suddenly, without 

 the slightest cause apparently, go half a mile further. 

 The partridge which you could vow had dropped 

 just over the hedge has done no such thing; just 

 before touching the ground she has turned at right 

 angles and gone fifty yards down it. 



The impression left after watching the motions oi 

 birds is that of extreme mobility a life of perpetual 

 impulse checked only by fear. With one or two ex- 

 ceptions, they do not appear to have the least idea 

 of saving labour by clearing one spot of ground of 

 food before flying further ; they just hastily snatch 

 a morsel and off again, or, in a tree, peer anxiously 



