ALONG THE LANES AND HEDGEROWS. 65 



selected as the most peculiar species of the lanes 

 and the hedgerows, but many other birds will be 

 sure to be met with in them. Thus, there are 

 few hedges round which we can ramble without 

 flushing the noisy BLACKBIRD. With what a 

 startling cry he issues from them ! First we hear 

 him hopping along, rustling about the fallen 

 leaves and dry twigs, then a moment after out he 

 comes with noisy voice, and flying low for a few 

 yards pops in again ; and time after time will he 

 renew the same tactics, until the end of the hedge 

 is reached, and he either makes a detour across 

 the fields, or enters the wood or the shrubbery 

 his truer haunt and we see him no more. Then, 

 too, the SONG THRUSH frequents the hedges, 

 commonly enough ; and both it and the Black- 

 bird repeatedly make their nest within them. 

 Our little friend the HEDGE ACCENTOR is also here 

 to greet us with its complaining chirp, and we 

 catch fitful glimpses of it as it flits along the 

 centre of the hedge. The WREN and the RED- 

 START may also be met with, the former especially; 

 and then again the BULLFINCH occasionally makes 

 his nest in a hedgerow. This bird, however, is 

 most frequently seen in these places during 

 winter, and very handsome he looks as he flits 

 in drooping flight before us, followed ' by his 

 less showy mate, or sits and calls to her in the 

 twilight, just before entering the shrubberies 

 where they roost. In autumn especially the 

 hedgerows are frequented by wandering GOLD- 

 CRESTS, and the WILLOW WREN may be seen 

 there, remarkably so during the late summer 

 months. 



Many of the lanes are used as cart-roads from 



