76 THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



finches continued to call from a hawthorn bush, and a 

 fly-catcher never ceased its activities from the top of a 

 broken tombstone. 



Towards sundown I wandered past a copse illumin- 

 ated with wild roses and foxgloves to the open moorland 

 beyond, where my presence gravely disturbed several 

 pairs of redshanks. Their slightly built nests were 

 evidently hidden somewhere in the desolate swamps. 

 With wild cries and gesticulations they threw themselves 

 about in the evening air, hoping to draw away the 

 intruder of their solitudes. Their shrill notes of alarm 

 disturbed the peewits, or green plovers, whose doleful 

 wail, like unto the cry of a lost soul, added to the weird- 

 ness of the situation. After a while a company of wild- 

 duck, with outstretched necks and regulated flight, 

 passed overhead in the direction of Beaulieu Abbey. 

 As the twilight deepened the " whir " of the nightjar 

 or goat-sucker became more audible, and now and again 

 the strange bird would be seen making a rapid flight into 

 the air in quest of some moth or insect, and again 

 dropping down into the seclusion of the gorse and 

 heather. 



But if the verge of the Forest is full of interest to the 

 lover of birds, it is no less so to the botanist. The shore 

 of Southampton Water is the home of many choice 

 species. It is the chief locality in England for the 

 many-spiked cord-grass, or Spartina alterniflora, which 

 found its way over from America at the beginning of the 

 last century, and has now completely established itself. 

 It is a stout and withal a useful grass. Many sheds and 

 outhouses and even cottages in the neighbourhood of 

 Hythe and Dibden may be seen thatched with it instead 

 of straw. All along the shore characteristic seaside 



