124 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



clods of the ploughed field outside the wood the 

 note of the corn bunting, ordinarily a trivial wheezy 

 sound, is quite important, whilst the bubble of the 

 cirl bunting in the hedge comes out strong. As 

 it grows dusk it grows chilly, for there is no St. 

 Martin's summer about the eves of late October. 

 The pheasants are trumpeting to roost, a fresh out- 

 cry at each mount upward ; every blackbird has set 

 up chink-chink-chinking. The duet of pheasants and 

 blackbirds rises high above all other sounds. Yet, 

 if we stand still at the edge of the wood, we can 

 hear other voices than theirs, small contributions to 

 this evening hymn its undertones. One of these 

 is the "it-it-it" of the redbreast. The sound is as 

 if you passed your finger, with slight irregular pauses, 

 over the teeth of a comb; not a sound is this red- 

 breast's with beauty apart from association. But 

 association here is everything, so the redbreast is 

 delightful. 



A second modest contribution is the wren's ditty. 

 Wrens are always brimming into song. They are 

 at it till the very dark, even in the winter. They 

 will almost sing in their sleep I have certainly 

 heard one wren sing when I disturbed it roosting, 

 and it was only half awake. It seems as if it 

 were purely automatic, this music of the wren. Any- 

 thing, everything touches the spring which sets the 

 music moving. During nest- building for the cock 

 wren builds nests with all his midget might food- 



