A CITY OF BIRDS 73 



for Somerset. I can only pray that if they breed in 

 the neighbourhood another year they will escape the 

 collector (not to mention bird-catchers, urchins and 

 local " sportsmen "), that covetous pedant with his 

 glass case for skin or egg, for ever on the prowl. 



Now, again, it would be a nuthatch flying out from 

 an oak, tweaking off an acorn, carrying it to a branch, 

 riveting it into some crevice, and then hammer away, 

 swinging the whole body to the blow. The birds were 

 very blithe and active that warm and windless autumn, 

 and one would constantly blunder into a bubbling centre 

 of life in a glade or in some broad pathway in the woods. 

 Then to and fro ran little contented exclamations and 

 broken bursts of song and flying shapes darting across 

 the open space or rustling like wind-blown leaves among 

 the foliage. Suddenly all is still ; the breeze of warm 

 and vibrant life dies away. 



At one time I was privileged to be a witness at a 

 very curious drama of wild life. A sparrow-hawk was 

 in pursuit of a pied wagtail flying in its erratic way 

 with shrill screams of terror, quite different from the 

 chiz zic of normal happiness. The chase took the birds 

 to a tall elm, and by a clever double back into the 

 foliage, the wagtail evaded the rush of the hawk, who, 

 not being able to turn quickly enough, swung out past 

 the tree. But then, to my astonishment, I saw against 

 the tree the wagtail's mate in close pursuit of the hawk 

 and uttering the familiar cry, not in terror as his or 

 her lover uttered it, but in rage, indignation and defiance. 

 The hawk gave it up and went over the scruff of the 

 hill, still pursued by little David, whose love was hidden 

 in the leaves of the elm. This strange incident was 

 especially interesting to me, for I have observed that 

 swallow and pied wagtail pursue hawks more often 

 than other species, and that the pied wagtail is the 

 most fearless and dashing. I have related other incidents 

 of the same kind elsewhere in this book, but I may say 

 here that I have seen the pied wagtail (sometimes alone, 

 sometimes with his comrades) furiously at the heels 

 of the Philistine as often out of the breeding season 

 as in it. His abrupt and conscious shouts of sibilant 



