WOODLANDS 



each other, and back again to cover. To-day there 

 are but three, and they do not venture far from 

 their buries. 



Watching these, a green woodpecker cries in 

 the copse, and immediately afterwards flies across 

 the mead and away to another plantation. Occa- 

 sionally the spotted woodpecker may be seen here, 

 a little bird which, in the height of summer, is 

 lost among the foliage, but in spring and winter 

 can be observed tapping at the branches of the 

 trees. 



I think I have seen more spotted woodpeckers 

 near London than in far distant and nominally 

 wilder districts. This lane, for some two miles, 

 is lined on each side with trees, and, besides this 

 particular copse, there are several others close by ; 

 indeed, stretching across the country to another 

 road, there is a succession of copses, with meadows 

 between. Birds which love trees are naturally 

 seen flitting to and fro in the lane ; the trees are at 

 present young, but as they grow older and decay 

 they will be still more resorted to. 



Jays screech in the trees of the lane almost all 

 the year round, though more frequently in spring 

 and autumn, but I rarely walked here without see- 

 ing or hearing one. Beyond the stile the lane 

 descends into a hollow, and is bordered by a small 

 furze common, where, under shelter of the hollow 

 5 



