68 A BIRD COLLECTOR'S MEDLEY. 



quite fresh, and laid on fish-bones. I could often in the winter have killed 

 it when Snipe shooting below St. Catherine's Hill, and have watched it there 

 taking headers after the smaller fish, and there is a garden near St. Cross 

 which has, I am afraid, witnessed the slaughter of many of these most 

 beautiful birds. Still, though more frequent in some years than others, it 

 appears on the whole to hold its own, and as in some portions of the district 

 it is rigorously protected by the landowners, there seems no immediate 

 probability of the local race becoming extinct. 



Many and varied are the localities where one may admire this skilled 

 exponent of the gentle art. I have watched him darting along the Sussex 

 estuaries, and fishing from the sluice gates, which shut off the salt water 

 from the meadows. I have watched him in Norfolk, perched on posts amidst 

 the saltings, or hovering at even above some tiny broad, poised on beating 

 wings like a humming-bird, a shimmering blaze of turquoise amidst the 

 crimson glories of the setting sun. Or, again, beneath Beachy Head I have 

 seen him sitting upon the rocks, diving at intervals into the pools left be- 

 neath them by the receding tide. But it is, nevertheless, with the southern 

 chalk streams that one instinctively associates the bird ; never does he seem 

 so much at home and in harmony with his surroundings as when seated on the 

 decaying stump of his favourite willow, or skimming across the eddying 

 river to the bank which he has chosen for his nest. 



As we draw near to Twyford we keep a sharp look out for that 

 interesting bird the Hawfinch. The large, solitary may-bushes which stand 

 out here and there in the open provide just the sort of perch that the 

 Hawfinch loves. Here, on the topmost twig, he sits, an ever-watchful 

 sentinel, and almost as soon as you enter the meadow he has taken wing 

 and retired to some more secure retreat. It was long before I discovered 

 that the bird was to be found here at all ; and it was only the existence of 

 some peas in a garden near Twyford that at length brought it into 

 prominence, its partiality for this vegetable overcoming for a time its love 

 of seclusion and quiet. Once found and suspected of being a regular 

 denizen, I soon hunted out its more favoured haunts, and discovered that 

 in the large meadows beyond Twyford, and also amongst the yew trees 

 which adorn the hedges on the Shawford Down, the bird is to be met with 

 at all seasons of the year. I have little doubt that it breeds in some of 

 these fine old bushes, but have never had the chance of hunting at the 

 right season for its nest. Shy bird though the Hawfinch is, the conspicuous 

 light bar on the wings and its largish size make it easy to recognize, if 

 one is always on the look out, and able to tell birds at a distance. It is the 



