GIRL BUNTING 301 



acquaintance with and confidence in us; and even at 

 night when I would go out to where most of our wild 

 birds roosted, in the trees and bushes growing in a vast 

 old chalk-pit close to the cottage, and called " Blackie," 

 instantly there would be a response a softly chuckled 

 note, like a sleepy "Good-night," thrown back to me 

 out of the darkness. 



During the spell of rough weather which brought us 

 the blackbird, my interest was centred in the cirl bunt- 

 ings. On August 4, I was surprised to find that they 

 were breeding again in the little sweetbriar hedge, and 

 had three fledglings about a week old in the nest. 

 They had on this occasion gone from the west to the 

 east side of the cottage, and the new nest, two to three 

 feet from the ground, was placed in the centre of a 

 small tangle of sweetbriar, bramble, and bryony, within 

 a few yards of the trunk of the big lime tree under 

 which I was accustomed to sit. I had this nest under 

 observation until August 9, which happened to be the 

 worst day, the coldest, wettest, and windiest of all that 

 wintry spell ; and yet in such weather the young birds 

 came out of their cradle. For a couple of days they 

 remained near the nest concealed among some low 

 bushes ; then the whole family moved away to a hedge 

 at some distance on higher ground, and there I watched 

 the old birds for some days feeding their young on 

 grasshoppers. 



The result of my observations on these birds and on 

 three other pairs which I found breeding close by one 



