ROUND A LONDON COPSE = 



before there is one anywhere else. The famous 

 snowstorm of October, 1880, snapped off the 

 leader or top of this oak. 



Jays often come, magpies more rarely, to the 

 copse ; as for the lesser birds they all visit it. In 

 the hornbeams at the verge blackcaps sing in 

 spring a sweet and cultured song, which does not 

 last many seconds. They visit a thick bunch of 

 ivy in the garden. By these hornbeam trees a 

 streamlet flows out of the copse, crossed at the hedge 

 by a pole, to prevent cattle straying in. The pole 

 is a robin's perch. He is always there, or near; he 

 was there all through the terrible winter, all the 

 summer, and he is there now. 



There are a few inches, a narrow strip of sand, 

 beside the streamlet under this pole. Whenever a 

 wagtail dares to come to this sand the robin im- 

 mediately appears and drives him away. He will 

 bear no intrusion. A pair of butcher-birds built 

 very near this spot one spring, but afterwards ap- 

 peared to remove to a place where there is more 

 furze, but beside the same hedge. The determina- 

 tion and fierce resoluton of the shrike, or butcher- 

 bird, despite his small size, is most marked. ' One 

 day a shrike darted down from a hedge just before 

 me, not a yard in front, and dashed a dandelion to 

 the ground. 



His claws clasped the stalk, and the flower was 

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