36 WHAT TO DO IN THE COUNTRY 



safety. Besides this, birds can find plenty of food, 

 like caterpillars and insects, among the shrubs. 

 Notice how many wild flowers creep under the 

 shelter of the hedgerows. The very first rose of 

 the year — the Primrose — will be found earliest on 

 a sunny hedge bank, and during the months that 

 follow comes a whole procession of Spring and 

 Summer flowers. 



Some plants cannot live except in the hedgerows. 

 They are those wild plants with thin weak stems, 

 which climb up the hedgerow-bushes and hang 

 their flowers and berries over them, until, some- 

 times, the hedge bushes are almost hidden by the 

 climbers. These slender plants have different 

 ways of climbing. Some catch hold and pull 

 themselves up by hooks ; some throw out long- 

 thin fingers, or tendrils, and twine themselves- 

 round the hedge bushes, and so clamber along 

 from branch to branch. Will you look carefully^ 

 at the different climbing plants you see and tell' 

 how each one lifts itself up higher and higher on 

 the hedgerows ? If you can find out their names 

 so much the better. If not, never mind. Tell 

 me how they climb and I shall know the names. 



I am afraid you) will not hear many song birds,, 

 for July and August are their silent months.. 

 However, you will be sure to hear the Robin's- 

 pretty little trill, the Wood Pigeon's soft coo-o-o, 

 and the bree-e-eze of the Greenfinch uttered 



