CHAPTER V. 



WHEATEAR STONECHAT — WHIXCHAT. 



If in spring and early summer there is a rich- 

 ness and beauty in our woods and meadows, so 

 too, at these seasons, the wide-spread downs have 

 attractions of their own. Desolate indeed they 

 seem in winter, as the wind sweeps sullenly over 

 their short grassy turf, bowing down the slender 

 green twigs of the broom, or the sturdier branches 

 of the ling, and making a moan through the stiff 

 spiny boughs of the fm'ze. We can then see 

 little there that has a brighter tinge than the 

 grass, save an occasional blossom on the furze, 

 which is of paler yellow and less wide expansion 

 than the bloom of summer ; or we may look upon 

 a tuft of emerald moss, or a bright whitish gi'ey 

 lichen hanging around the trunk of a solitary 

 tree, or a gay orange or pale yellow fungus at its 

 base ; or perchance we may stoop to gather the 

 little crimson mushroom-like object which glitters 



