NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



now in the fullest blaze of its golden glory. To appre- 

 ciate gorse bloom in its most perfect beauty, one must 

 see it displayed in this way. Gorse lends itself so deftly 

 to the soft contours of these heights and their valleys ; 

 even in winter its dark masses add a wonderful charm 

 to the spreading slopes. In the full flower of spring- 

 time there are surely few things more beautiful in 

 nature. Not even a wild hillside of southern Cape 

 Colony, flushed with the colours of a hundred varieties 

 of heath, can easily surpass it. Linnaeus, they say, 

 setting eyes for the first time on a stretch of English 

 gorse-land, arrayed in its spring beauty, burst into 

 tears. The tears of that great man implying, perhaps, 

 some excess of what our great-grandparents termed 

 sensibility may surely be pardoned on such an occa- 

 sion. The view over a wide and beautiful landscape 

 has much the same effect upon many natures, though 

 English reserve is usually a check upon the outward 

 display of strong emotion. 



Springtime upon the downs brings always many 

 a welcome feathered wanderer from southern and eastern 

 countries. In March or early April, for example, you 

 may be always certain to set eyes on the lively and 

 handsome wheatear, which, having wintered in Egypt, 

 Asia Minor, Arabia, or some other warm region, be- 

 takes himself in spring as far north as Iceland and 

 even the unattractive shores of Greenland. Last year 

 (1903) this bird seemed to me later than usual, and 

 although one or two were noted by the second week in 

 March, there were very few about till the 25th of that 

 month. 



The wheatear, until a score or two of years since, 

 was in great request as an article of food. Gourmets 

 thought as much of this bird almost as of the quail and 

 ortolan, and for centuries shepherds of the Sussex 



294 



