162 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



the jay utters a heart-rending shriek, and the wood- pigeon 

 clatters through the branches on noisy wing. All, including 

 the young thrush which seeps continuously only a few 

 feet away, are hidden or only visible for a moment. The 

 trustful robin is the only bird really in evidence, for no 

 sooner do we enter the wood than we hear its subdued 

 song of welcome, and see it flit across our path to perch 

 eyeing us with friendly gaze; it exhibits no annoyance 

 at our presence and certainly no apprehension. Man, it 

 shows by its behaviour, is looked upon as a friend, a com- 

 panion. Beyond the reed fringe the playful mallard 

 flappers are splashing; their elders chuckle in contented 

 tones, and now and again utter a sonorous quack. Coots 

 and moorhens utter explosive and loud metallic remarks; 

 immature grebes with striped cheeks and necks follow 

 their stately parents with incessant querulous demands 

 for attention, and now and again the cheerful dabchick 

 ripples out its laughing trill. 



The bird voices are accompanied by a constant murmur, 

 which rises and falls in volume and varies in quality. 

 A puff of wind raises a gentle rustle amidst the leaves; 

 a gleam of sunshine and the buzz of millions of gauzy 

 insect wings swells into a boom. The stout and bustling 

 humble-bee leads with a deep bass rumble as it blunders 

 from blossom to blossom on the bramble or stirs the dust 

 amidst the tree roots as it searches for something, the bee 

 alone knows what. The hover fly hangs motionless in the 

 ride, its whirring wings a mere blurr to our slow sight- 

 singing tenor; the annoying banded gnat produces a shrill 

 treble scream two inches from our ear. Reflexly we raise 

 an arm and sweep the air, but never hit the singer. A 

 small tortoiseshell butterfly and many diurnal moths, a 

 skimming, darting dragon-fly, " with loud latticed sails," 

 bees and wasps of various kinds, two- winged flies of every 

 description, from a great bluebottle with a chequered 



