Birds of the Hedgerow 



Two varieties of eggs are commonly met with, 

 olive brown and olive green and a third of bluish 

 green is sometimes though rarely found. 



Curiously enough the male Nightingales arrive a 

 few days before the females, and their rich liquid 

 notes are to be heard all day long in the woods and 

 thickets. No words of mine can describe their song. 

 I have stood immediately beneath a branch on which 

 one of these birds has been singing and listened 

 with a kind of reverent awe to the deep full notes 

 which proceed from so slender and fragile a 

 creature. The characteristic notes with which it 

 begins might be rendered by the words " choog, 

 choog, choog," and then follows a flow of music 

 that can only be compared to water bursting from 

 the flood-gates that held it. One watches the 

 quivering distended throat, and marvels. Little 

 wonder that Nature protects such a songster with 

 modest colouring, for it is a russet brown above, 

 becoming more rufous on the lower back and tail, 

 while the under parts are huffish white. 



Until quite recently the Nightingale and Robin, 

 to which it is closely allied, were classified by 

 naturalists among the Warblers, but their affinity 

 to the Thrushes has at last been vindicated, owing 

 chiefly to the spotted character of the young. 



Among the nettles, too, the Chiff-chaff often 

 builds his home ; at least he did in this lane, and 

 the nest matches its surroundings so closely as to 

 defy any but an experienced eye. Dead grass and 



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