86 A MIDLAND VILLAGE: 6AEDEN AND MEADOW. 



down easily for a second attempt ; but after a few days they will 

 rise high in air, like a snipe, when disturbed, and uttering their 

 shrill pipe, circle round and round and finally vanish. 



It should be noted that this species is called the Green, 

 Sandpiper because its legs are green ; such are the wilful ways 

 of English terminology. It is the only Sandpiper we have 

 beside the common species, which invariably prefers the 

 Evenlode, where it may every now and then be seen working 

 its rapid way along the edge of the water, quite unconcerned 

 at a spectator, and declining to go off like a champagne cork. 

 Both kinds come in spring and late summer, but the Green 

 Sandpiper is much more regular in his visits, and stays with 

 us, in autumn at least, much longer. A stray pair found 

 their way here last winter in a hard frost, and rose from 

 beneath my feet as I walked along the Evenlode on December 

 24th. This is the only time I have ever seen them here 

 except in the other brook; and I have very little doubt that 

 they were total strangers to the locality. Had they ever been 

 here before, I make bold to say that they would have gone to 

 their old haunts. 



Beyond the brook lies a magnificent meadow nearly a mile 

 long, called the Yantle, in which, a century and a half ago, 

 the little "Warren Hastings used to lie a^d look up with 

 ambitious hopes and fears at the hills and woods of Daylesford. 

 This meadow was once doubtless the common pasture ground 

 of the parish : it now serves as ager puhlicus for great numbers 

 of winged families bred in our gardens and orchards. Gold- 

 finches, linnets, starlings, redstarts, pipits, wagtails, white- 



