WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 237 



seed, were bursting. The shocks of wheat, too, will 

 crackle in the morning sun. This corner, well shel- 

 tered by furze and brake, is one of " sly Reynard's " 

 favourite haunts. The stems of the furze, when they 

 grow straight, are occasionally cut for walking-sticks. 

 Wood-pigeons visit the copse frequently in the spring 

 there are several nests and towards evening their 

 hollow notes are repeated at intervals. Though with- 

 out the slightest pretensions to a song, there is some- 

 thing soothing in their call, pleasantly suggestive of 

 woodland glades and deep, shady dells. 



Just before the shooting season opens there is a 

 remarkable absence of song from hedge and tree ; even 

 the chirp of the house-sparrow is seldom heard on the 

 roof, where only recently it was loud and continuous. 

 Most of the sparrows have, in fact, left the houses in 

 flocks and resorted to the corn-fields after the grain. 

 In this silent season the robin, the wood-pigeon, and 

 the greenfinch seem the only birds whose notes are at 

 all common : the pigeons call in the evening as they 

 come to the copse, the greenfinches in a hushed kind 

 of way talk to each other in the hedge, and the robin 

 plaintively utters a few notes on the tree. It is not 

 absolute silence indeed, but the difference is very 

 noticeable. Through the ash poles on one side of the 

 copse distant glimpses may be obtained of gleaming 

 water, where a creek of the shallow lake runs in to- 

 wards it. 



Bordering the furze, a thick hawthorn hedge a 

 double mound extends, so wide as to be itself almost 



