Yellow-Hammers. 45. 
CHAPTER III. 
THE HILLSIDE HEDGE: ITS BIRDS AND FLOWERS.—A 
GREEN TRACK.—THE SPRINGHEAD. 
A Low thick hawthorn hedge runs along some dis- 
tance below the earthwork just at the foot of the 
steepest part of the hill. It divides the greensward 
of the down from the ploughed land of the plain, 
which stretches two or three miles wide, across to 
another range opposite. A few stunted ash trees 
grow at intervals among the bushes, which are the 
favourite resort of finches and birds that feed upon 
the seeds and insects they find in the cultivated fields. 
Most of these corn-fields being separated only by a 
shallow trench and a bank bare of underwood, the 
birds naturally flock to the few hedges they can find. 
So that, although but low and small in comparison 
with the copse-like hedges of the vale, the hawthorn 
here is often alive with birds: chaffinches and spar- 
rows perhaps in the greatest numbers, also yellow- 
hammers. 
The colour of the yellowhammer appears 
brighter in spring and early summer: the bird is 
aglow with a beautiful and brilliant yet soft yellow, 
