1 68 Midland Village: Railway and Woodland. 



this very wood, and suspected them to be the 

 call-notes of the Wood-warbler, a bird with which, 

 strangely enough, I had never had any personal 

 acquaintance. 



The sibilant noise was all this time going on 

 close at hand. The wood was comparatively 

 silent owing to the east wind, and I could con- 

 centrate my attention on these new voices without 

 distraction. I noticed that the sibilation was pre- 

 ceded by three or four slightly longer and more 

 distinct notes, and as this answered to my book- 

 knowledge of the Wood-warbler, I became more 

 and more anxious to see the bird. But he would 

 not let me see him. And then came the puzzling 

 plaintive notes again, as different as possible from 

 the sibilant ones, and it became absolutely neces- 

 sary to discover whether they were uttered by the 

 same creature. 



At last I thought I had made sure of the bird 

 in one particular little thicket not more than ten 

 or twelve yards from me, and crept on as softly as 

 possible out of the clearing into the underwood. 

 Of course the dead twigs crackled under my feet 

 and the branches had to be put forcibly aside, and 



