412 BIRD LIFE AT BINGHAM'S MELCOMBE 



with the low crooning of the turtle-dove one of 

 the most soothing sounds in Nature. The jay, the 

 most beautiful and restless of his tribe, with the 

 rich chestnut plumage of his body, his dainty crest 

 incessantly rising and falling, his wing-coverts with 

 their alternating bars of white and blue, sometimes 

 awakens the plantation with his harsh scream, 

 which, in the breeding season, drops into a short, 

 low love-note. A pair of wheat-ears may, occasion- 

 ally, be seen on the open downs, while two or three 

 pairs of stone-chats are always flitting nervously 

 from furze bush to furze bush, on the hill above 

 the house, or perching on the topmost spray, and 

 vigorously scolding the intruder. The yellow- 

 hammer is to be found in every hedge which skirts 

 the chalk downs ; the bullfinch descends in numbers, 

 in mid-winter, to levy heavy toll upon the buds 

 of fruit trees in the garden ; and the goldfinch, 

 the most gaudy and perhaps the most vain of 

 birds, which, a few years ago, seemed to be dying 

 out everywhere, is now, thanks to the Wild Birds' 

 Preservation Act, becoming one of the commoner 

 finches. Three years ago, in autumn, I saw some 

 hundreds of them congregated together in a berry- 

 laden double hedge ; and two or three pairs always 

 deign to visit the garden in the spring, building 



