120 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



possessed of good qualities, which are exerted free 

 of all costs for man's benefit, is the rook. 



The beautiful wheatears frequent this hollow, not 

 in great numbers, but a dozen or more pairs may be 

 seen in the course of a morning's ramble. A timid 

 little fellow is the wheatear: a rook passing over 

 makes him dive for shelter under any tuft, stone, 

 or dead leaves that so frequently gather in bunches 

 at the base of brush-growth. His note is very like 

 that of the shrike, who will come presently to the 

 same happy hunting-grounds ; the chack ! chack ! 

 draws your attention to the wheatear, as it does 

 to the shrike. The furzechat, with his black head 

 and red breast, has been here all the winter, also 

 the fire-eyed chat, the Dartford warbler. When 

 the hounds draw for a fox, these are in a state of 

 scolding excitement. The whinchats will come pres- 

 ently. The furzechat or stonechat ought, I think, 

 to change names with the whinchat for the last- 

 named bird, so far as habits and habitat go, deserves 

 the title far more, in my opinion, than the black- 

 headed stonechat, or furzechat, as it is usually 

 called with us. 



The cuckoo, when his time comes, will shout all 



