154 A YEAR WITH NATURE. 



for such an operation. The cavity fills up after he has been 

 in the world long enough to kill his foster brothers and sisters. 

 How much more we have yet to learn about this extraordinary 

 birdl The Cuckoo's Mate is heard from that belt of wood- 

 land ; Nightingales it is still three hours before the sun sets- 

 were never more plentiful, and the Cuckoo is almost every- 

 where. We are in Hertfordshire. Are we more favoured here 

 than elsewhere with these two birds? 



The Swallows and Martins are busy round an old tumble- 

 down barn. The nests of the Chaffinch do not look so fresh 

 as when we last wrote, but what a delicate little home the 

 Chiff Chaff has at the foot of a furze bush, right underneath 

 some overhanging grasses. Six freckled eggs were in the nest, 

 and in the bush above a Song Thrush's, containing four young- 

 sters. The parent will not budge, what an instance of loyalty 

 and affection. 



Much more could I write, of the Blackcap's warble, the 

 Woodpecker's ripple of laughter and the many other Warblers, 

 but notice how silent the Titmice are! It is later now, the 

 Swifts are out for their night-fly. Charles Witchell truly says: 

 " The chorus of Swifts, heard at thirty-five minutes after sunset, 

 indicates that a group of these birds is about to rise for the 

 accustomed night-fly in the sky, which is one of the most 

 extraordinary phenomena in the whole region of Ornithology." 



How the Swifts cling to a wall or building may be seen on 

 a reference to the group presented on page 155. Here we 

 see a nest full of the curious looking youngsters, a pair of 

 birds in their flight, and a second nest containing one of the 

 beautiful pure white eggs. 



I close with a quotation from an article on fishing by "H." 

 in the Saturday, it so realistically represents the closing 

 scene, and the afterward : " The heart of the night opens, fold 

 on fold, like a flower, fragrant with unseen meadow sweet, till 

 suddenly the dewy sensation of approaching morning strikes 

 across it, and you begin to see the shapes of things dimly as 

 the light spreads up the East, changing from silver to an amber 

 clearness in which the stars are melted, and from amber to the 

 orange light of widening day." 



