NATURE NEAR LONDON 



common immediately opposite the copse is late in 

 the same manner. There is a mound about half 

 a mile farther, where a nightingale always sings 

 first, before all the others of the district. The 

 one on the common began to sing last spring 

 a full week later. On the contrary, the sedge- 

 reedling, which chatters side by side with the 

 nightingale, is the first of all his kind to return 

 to the neighbourhood. The same thing happens 

 season after season, so that when once you know 

 these places you can always hear the birds several 

 days before other people. 



\Vith flowers it is the same ; the lesser celan- 

 dine, the marsh marigold, the silvery cardamine, 

 appear first in one particular spot, and may be 

 gathered there before a petal has opened elsewhere. 

 The first swallow in this district generally appears 

 round about a pond near some farm buildings. 

 Birds care nothing for appropriate surroundings. 

 Hearing a titlark singing his loudest, I found him 

 perched on the rim of a tub placed for horses 

 to drink from. 



This very pond by which the first swallow 

 appears is muddy enough, and surrounded with 

 poached mud, for a herd of cattle drink from and 

 stand in it. An elm overhangs it, and on the 

 lower branches, which are dead, the swallows perch 

 and sing just over the muddy water. A sow lies 

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