WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 295 



nearly continuous ; and the birch copse abounds with 

 nightingales in the spring. On one fine morning I 

 counted eight birds singing at once. The young birds 

 seemed afterwards as numerous as the sparrows. 

 Never in the wildest district I have ever visited have 

 I seen so many. They had become so accustomed to 

 passers-by that they took no notice unless purposely 

 disturbed. Several times I stood under an oak bough 

 that projected across the sward by the roadside, with 

 a nightingale perched on it overhead straining his 

 throat. The bough was some twelve feet high, and 

 in full view of every one. This road was constructed 

 about a hundred years ago ; and it would be interest- 

 ing to learn if a country lane preceded it, well shel- 

 tered on both sides by thick hedges. Birds are fond 

 of such places, and having once formed the habit of 

 coming there, would continue to do so after the high- 

 way was laid down. 



It has been stated that the flocks of chaffinches 

 which may be seen in winter consist entirely of females. 

 Male chaffinches are rarely seen : they have migrated 

 or in some other manner disappeared. Yet so soon 

 as the spring comes on the males make their presence 

 known by calling their defiant notes from every elm 

 along the road. Last spring [1878] I fell into conversa- 

 tion with a fowler. He had a cock chaffinch hi a cage 

 covered with a black cloth, except on one side. The 

 cage was placed on the sward beside the road, and 

 near it a stuffed cock bird stood on the grass. Two 

 pieces of whalebone smeared with birdlime formed a 



