216 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



reaching a still higher one, and gradually bending 

 the central stem till it forms a bow. If done gradually 

 and the bow not too acute, the tallest bush will spring 

 up when released without the least injury. With a 

 crook to seize the bush as high up as possible where it 

 bends more easily not a twig need be broken, and nut- 

 ting may be enjoyed without doing the least damage. 

 Under a tall ash tree rising out of the hazel bushes, 

 and near the great hawthorn on the edge or shore of 

 the ditch, the grass grows rank and is of the deepest 

 green. The dove that could be heard cooing from 

 the orchard built her nest in the hawthorn, which, 

 where it overhangs the grass like a canopy, is bare of 

 boughs for six or seven feet up the gnarled stem. The 

 cattle, who love to shelter under it from the heat of 

 the sun, browsed on the young shoots, so that no 

 branch could form ; but on the side towards the 

 ditch there are immense spiny thorns, long enough 

 and strong enough to make a savage's arrow-head or 

 awl. The doves do not seem nearly so numerous as 

 the wood-pigeons (doves, too, in strict language) ; 

 they are much smaller, rather duller in colour that 

 is, when flying past and are rarely seen more than 

 two together. When the summer thunder is booming 

 yonder over the hills, and the thin edge of the dark 

 cloud showers its sweet, refreshing rain, with the 

 sunshine gleaming through on the hedge and grass 

 here, between the rolling echoes the dove may be 

 heard in the bush coo-cooing still more softly and 

 lovingly to her mate. 



