176 INDOOR STUDIES 



build quite as elaborate nests, too; ■which does not 

 seem to be the case with ground- builders in Europe. 

 There are few finer and neater architects among the 

 birds than our song sparrow and snowbird. 



White lays it down "as a maxim in ornithology 

 that as long as there is any incubation going on 

 there is music." This is true of our birds also: 

 they continue in song until the young are hatched. 

 But the converse of the proposition is not true, that 

 there is incubation as long as there is music. Cer- 

 tain species continue in song long after the last 

 brood has flown. I am convinced that more birds 

 continue in song in late summer and in early au- 

 tumn in this country than do in England. 



The main features of White's country are appar- 

 ently but little changed since his time. The Hanger 

 is there, with its noble beeches, and a large part of 

 Wolmer Forest still remains. I passed two rainy 

 days and one night at Selborne in June, 1882. At 

 the hotel where I stopped, a copy of White's book 

 could not be produced. The village is small, com- 

 pact, and humble. The postman handed me my 

 letters upon the street without remark, as if I was 

 the only stranger in the place, — which was proba- 

 bly true. The soil of that part of England is a 

 heavy, greasy clay. On the steepest part of the 

 Hanger the boys ride or slide down the hill in sum- 

 mer. The turf is removed, and the slippery clay 

 is a fair substitute for ice. White's house had 

 been recently much changed. It stands in the 

 midst of the village, close to the street, and not 



