38 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



spot in which to spend the sultry hours, and I had 

 no sooner cast myself on the short grass in the shade 

 than I noticed that the end of a projecting branch 

 above my head, and about twenty feet from the 

 ground, was the favourite perch of a tree-pipit* 

 He sang in the air, and, circling gracefully down, 

 would alight on the branch, where, sitting near me 

 and plainly visible, he would finish his song and 

 renew it at intervals ; then, leaving the loved perch, 

 he would drop singing to the ground, just a few 

 yards beyond the tree's shadow ; thence, singing 

 again, he would mount up and up above the tree, 

 only to slide down once more with set, unfluttering 

 wings, with a beautiful swaying motion, to the same 

 old resting-place on the branch, there to sing and 

 sing and sing* 



If Melendez himself had come to me with flushed 

 face and laughing eyes, and sat down on the grass 

 at my side to recite one of his most enchanting 

 poems, I should, with finger on lip, have enjoined 

 silence ; for in the mood I was then in at that 

 sequestered spot, with the landscape outside my 

 shady green pavilion bathed and quivering in the 

 brilliant sunshine, this small bird had suddenly 

 become to me more than any other singer, feathered 

 or human* And yet the tree-pipit is not very highly 

 regarded among British melodists, on account of 

 the little variety there is in its song* Nevertheless 



