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CHAPTER XII. 

 THE WINCHESTER WATER MEADOWS. 



THE stretch of meadow-land which runs from Winchester to Eastleigh 

 has been regarded as a happy hunting-ground by myself and my brothers from 

 the very earliest days of our collection. Few, indeed, must be the fields which 

 have not listened to the twang of my catapult or the sharp crack of the 

 walking-stick gun. And, in truth, none could desire a more perfect haunt for 

 small birds. Lying, as they do, along the course of the Itchen, between two 

 chains of downs, these meadows attract not only the water birds and 

 Warblers, but other species also that one associates more readily with the 

 upland heights. I have more than once seen Wheatears close to the river, 

 while Stonechats and Whinchats are common near the canal below St. 

 Catherine's Hill, and breed in the small plantations on its banks. It is in 

 spring that these meadows are most enticing. Their sheltered dips and 

 tangled hedges appeal with special force to the Warblers newly arrived from 

 the south, and it is here that one listens, and not in vain, for the earliest notes 

 of the summer birds. March brings us the welcome form of the Chiffchaff 

 the delicate harbinger of spring. Like the sturdier Wheatear, it never fails to 

 brave the blustering winds ; indeed, I met one once near Twyford in the 

 middle of December. Tame as can be when they first arrive in small flocks of 

 half a dozen, they soon separate and betake themselves to the tree tops, and 

 then, for Warblers, they are hard to approach. The Chiffchaff may be observed 

 in the very first meadow beyond the Warden's garden, and here, too, I have 

 once seen the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, while the College bathing-place in 

 the same field is one of the favourite haunts of the Kingfisher, our loveliest 

 and most typical bird. 



All the way down the valley the Kingfisher may be met with, sometimes 

 chasing its mate with shrill cries across the pastures, sometimes sitting on the 

 small arches which span the lesser streams ; but, bright though it is, it often 

 flies off without attracting observation, and it is perhaps most generally 

 recognized by its note. I found the nest once, on April i7th, in a bank 

 beside one of the small waterfalls beyond Twyford ; it contained four eggs, 



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