74 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



you hear it, you will, if you love bird-music, stand 

 still and listen to that weird wild song; for the 

 bird fairly wails : it is a full, rich, wailing chant. 

 On the top shoot of a low fir sits the small dull- 

 coloured singer, his little breast heaving, and his 

 throat - feathers puffed out to their utmost, as he 

 gives vent to his song, whilst his slender needle- 

 pointed bill is opening to its widest stretch. This 

 is the grey and brown, sharp-billed, shuffle-winged 

 hedge-sparrow. 



The nightingale and blackcap sing and nest in 

 this spot, generally one pair of nightingales and two 

 pairs of blackcaps ; for both birds to a certain extent 

 are local in their habits. You will take great inter- 

 est in the song of either of these birds as you pass 

 along, but you will stop to listen to the hedge- 

 sparrow. One gravelly hollow, a very short dis- 

 tance from the place I have been describing, sunk 

 in the hillside facing direct to the south, is a fav- 

 ourite nesting - place for woodlarks. These fine 

 songsters, as their name indicates, are partial to 

 the outskirts of the woodlands ; they keep near, but 

 just out of them. 



The afterglow of a summer night, if nine o'clock 



