130 HILLSIDE, ROCK, AND DALE 



does this, and a cosy nesting-hole he makes too, lined 

 with the willow-catkins and fine mosses and hair. 



This lane, which is thus overflowing with life, seems 

 to be different from the more distant country road- 

 ways. There are more birds here, because owing 

 to the buildings and new roads which are springing 

 up all around, they are compelled either to leave 

 their old haunts altogether, or move to the few 

 available nesting sites near. Nearly all birds have 

 a great affection for their old haunts, and it needs 

 much of inconvenience to make them leave their 

 quarters. Chaffinch Lane is becoming a harbour 

 of refuge for dozens of warblers, finches, thrushes, 

 titmice, and other common but much-loved denizens 

 of the countryside. I try to find out why this lane 

 shows such a marked difference to distant haunts 

 of a similar kind. At first the cause is difficult to 

 detect ; but when evening comes on ; when birds 

 one by one cease their love-songs, and their happy 

 chatterings become less ; when the sun, which sinks 

 like a ball of molten crimson beyond the undulating 

 meadows, has gone, we find out why this is. Far 

 out in the larger counties there always seems to 

 be harmony in the air, which can only be described 

 as the' music of summer. This is unnoticed by the 

 majority of people, yet the sound is there. So 

 soft is this undertone in the evening air, that the 

 hum of the countless gnats as they play round 



