BTKDS OF THE WOODS. IO3 



keeping with the quiet solitude. But as the heat increases, 

 the birds begin to feel, as man does, that the shade of a thick 

 wood is more oppressive than the bright sunshine of the 

 meadows ; and on a hot afternoon in July you may walk 

 through the woodland and hardly catch a single note. 



But on the outskirts of a wood, or in a grassy ' ride,' you 

 may meet with life again. The Titmice will come crooning 

 around you, appearing suddenly, and vanishing you hardly 

 know how or whither; wood-pigeons will dash out of the 

 trees with that curious impetuosity of theirs, as if they were 

 suddenly sent for on most pressing business. A Robin will 

 perch on a branch hard by, and startle you with that pathetic 

 soliloquy which calls up instantly to your memory the damp 

 mist and decaying leaves of last November. The Green 

 Woodpecker may be there, laughing at you from an elm, or 

 possibly (as I have sometimes seen him) feeding on the ground, 

 and looking like a gorgeous bird of the tropics. 



Other birds of the Woodpecker kind are not common in 

 our woods. The Greater Spotted Woodpecker has not occurred, 

 within my recollection ; the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, which 

 I have heard country folk call the French HecMe, seldom 

 catches the eye,' though to judge by the number of stuffed 

 specimens which adorn the parlours of inns and farm-houses, 

 it can by no means be very rare. For this name ' heckle,' 



' A Woodpecker on a railway bridge is a curiosity. But a Lesser 

 Spotted bird was once seen on the stonework of the bridge which spans 

 the Chipping Norton branch line, by the Bector of my parish, who knows 

 the bird well. 



