BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



VIII 



JUST out of hearing of the grasshopper warblers there 

 was a good-sised pool of water on the common, 

 probably an old gravel-pit, its bottom now over- 

 grown with rushes* A sedge warbler, the only one 

 on the common, lived in the masses of bramble and 

 gorse on its banks ; and birds of so many kinds came 

 to it to drink and bathe that the pool became a 

 favourite spot with me* One evening, just before 

 sunset, as I lingered near it, a pied wagtail darted 

 out of some low scrub at my feet and fluttered, as if 

 wounded, over the turf for a space of ten or twelve 

 yards before flying away* Not many minutes after 

 seeing the wagtail, a reed bunting a bird which I 

 had not previously observed on the common flew 

 down and alighted on a bush a few yards from me, 

 holding a white crescent-shaped grub in its beak* 

 I stood still to watch it, certainly not expecting to 

 see its nest and young ; for, as a rule, a bird with 

 food in its beak will sit quietly until the watcher loses 

 patience and moves away. But on this occasion I 

 had not been standing more than ten seconds before 

 the bunting flew down to a small tuft of furze and 

 was there greeted by the shrill welcoming cries of 

 its young* I went up softly to the spot, when out 



