336 SUMMER. 



though it is of less frequent, and also of more recent 

 appearance in the latter country. It builds its nest in 

 places similar to those chosen by the white throat, 

 and they are constructed of similar materials. The 

 eggs, too, are a good deal like those of the white 

 throat in their size and markings, but the ground is a 

 dirty white, and wants the greenish tinge of the others. 

 The nests are often made in garden hedges, among the 

 roots of pease, and generally in places where the vege- 

 tation is tall. 



One of the most favourable places in England for 

 hearing the song of the petty chaps, and, indeed, the 

 songs of those birds, generally, that frequent the richer 

 districts, is the left bank of the Thames, from Hampton 

 Court to Richmond Bridge ; and it is not very easy to 

 imagine a finer treat to the lover of freshness, and 

 sound, and evening scenery, than a walk (wheels and 

 hoofs jar mightily in a concert of birds) between those 

 places on a fine night in the end of May; and if moon- 

 light, so much the better. Until the sun be down, 

 there is a great deal of noise and chirping, but not 

 much music ; but when the evening softens the air, 

 and the lime and the walnut take the lead among the 

 perfumes of the evening, as you pass the lee of them in 

 that gentle motion of the air which wafts sweetness, 

 but does not wave leaves, the song of the night the 

 real vesper of nature begins ; and though broken in 

 upon at at times by the baying of a watch dog, the 

 bellowing of an ox, the bleating of a sheep, or the 

 tinkle of a sheep bell, it is none the worse ; nor do the 

 monitor sounds of the clock, as they come muttered 

 through the trees, at all diminish the interest, but 



