234 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
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succeed to the ash-stoles, and are in turn bordered 
by some width of furze and brake fern. When this 
fern is young and fresh the sunshine glistens on its 
glossy green fronds, but on coming nearer the sheen 
disappears, On a very hot sultry day towards the 
end of summer there is occasionally a peculiar snap- 
ping sound to be heard in the furze, as if some part 
of the plant, perhaps the seed, were bursting. The 
shocks of wheat, too, will crackle in the morning sun. 
This corner, well sheltered by furze and brake, is one 
of ‘ sly Reynard’s’ favourite haunts. The stems of 
the furze, when they grow straight, are occasionally 
cut for walking-sticks. Wood-pigeons visit the copse 
frequently—in the spring there are several nests—and 
towards evening their hollow notes are repeated at 
intervals, Though without the slightest pretensions 
to a song, there is something soothing in their call, 
pleasantly suggestive of woodland glades and deep 
shady dells. 
Just before the shooting season opens there is a 
remarkable absence of song from hedge and tree: even 
the chirp of the house-sparrow is seldom heard on the 
roof, where only recently it was loud and continuous. 
Most of the sparrows have, in fact, left the houses in 
flocks and resorted to the corn-fields after the grain. 
In this silent season the robin, the wood-pigeon, and 
the greenfinch, seem the only birds whose notes are at 
all common: the pigeons call in the evening as they 
come to the copse, the greenfinches in a hushed kind 
