FLOCKS OF BIRDS 



bluebells for a hundred yards together. Learning 

 from this, those who would transplant wild flowers 

 to their garden should arrange to have as many as 

 possible of the same species close together. 



The bluebells in this hedge are unseen, except 

 by the rabbits. The latter have a large burrow, 

 and until the grass is too tall, or after it is cut or 

 grazed, can be watched from the highway. In 

 this hedge the first nightingale of the year sings, 

 beginning some two or three days before the bird 

 which comes to the bushes in the gorse, which 

 will presently be mentioned. 



It is, or rather was, a favourite meadow with 

 the partridges ; one summer there was, I think, 

 a nest in or near it, for I saw the birds there daily. 

 But the next year they were absent. One after- 

 noon a brace of partridges came over the hedge 

 within a few inches of my head ; they had been 

 flushed and frightened at some distance, and came 

 with the wind at a tremendous pace. It is a habit 

 with partridges to fly low, but just skimming the 

 tops of the hedges, and certainly, had they been 

 three inches lower, they must have taken my hat 

 off. The knowledge that partridges were often 

 about there made me always glance into this field 

 on passing it, long after the nesting-season was 

 over. 



In October, as I looked as usual, a hawk flew 

 3 33 



