228 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
CHAPTER XII. 
THE ASH COPSE—THE NIGHTINGALE—CLOUD OF STARLINGS— 
HEDGEHOGS—HERON’S MEAD—MOORHENS—AMONG THE 
REEDS. 
A GaP in the hedge by Hazel Corner leads through a 
fringe of hawthorn bushes into the ash copse. There 
is a gate at a little distance ; but somehow it is always 
more pleasant to follow the bye-way of the gap, where 
two steps, one down into the ditch, or rather on to 
the heap of sand thrown out from a rabbit bury, and 
one up on the mound, carry you from the meadow— 
out of cultivation—into the pathless wood. The 
green sprays momentarily pushed aside close im- 
mediately behind, shutting out the vision, and with it 
the thought of civilisation. These boughs are the 
gates of another world. Under trees and leaves—it 
is so, too, sometimes even in an avenue—where the 
direct rays of the sun do not penetrate, there is ever a 
subdued light ; it is not shadow, but a light toned 
with green. 
In spring the ground here is hidden by a verdant 
growth, out of which presently the anemone lifts its 
