182 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



calls of the greenfinches coming. They seem always 

 to travel two or more pairs together, and constantly 

 utter a soothing call, as if to say to their companions, 

 " Here we are, close by, dearest." They all appear 

 to know exactly where they are going flitting across 

 the gateway one by one, moving of one accord in the 

 same direction ; and their contented notes gradually 

 become inaudible as they go towards the orchard. 

 The goldfinches use the same route ; so do the bull- 

 finches. Even the starlings, before they come to the 

 house, usually perch on an ash tree in this hedge. 



There is another hedge, running parallel to it, one 

 hundred and fifty yards distant, the end of which 

 also approaches the premises, but it is comparatively 

 deserted. You may wait there in vain and see nothing 

 but a robin. 



By the same caravan route the blackbirds come to 

 the garden ; they, however, are not such travelling 

 birds as the finches. But the tomtits are : they work 

 their way from tree to tree for miles ; they also come 

 to the orchard by this hedge highway. As I have 

 said before, it abuts on the orchard ; and a straight 

 line carried across to the orchard wall, over that and 

 the road outside, would strike another great hedge, 

 which, were it not for the intervention of the garden, 

 would be a continuation of the first. The finches, 

 after spending a little time in the apple and damson 

 trees, fly over the wall and road to this second hedge, 

 and follow it down for nearly half a mile to a little 

 enclosed meadow, which, like the orchard, is a specially 



