IN SUMMER HEAT. 67 



This bird, when sitting, has no fear, for although 

 the haymakers were tossing the grass up in all 

 directions, spreading it out to dry, and coming now 

 and again to have a look at her as she sat on her 

 nest, the bird has never moved. Between three 

 and four in the afternoon, when she hatched out, 

 she went off with her little black mouse-like brood, 

 just like a farmyard hen. 



Pheasants and partridges are treated in the same 

 way; the mowers cut round them. Accidents do 

 occur at times, but they are accidents pure and 

 simple, and the wonder is that there are not more of 

 them, for the birds sit very close. 



This long spell of hot weather has caused all birds 

 to get their young out a month or five weeks earlier 

 than in ordinary seasons. The tree -pipits, very 

 numerous this season, are gone with their young 

 from their usual haunts. The white-throats, the 

 greater and lesser, are ready for moving. So are 

 the turtle-doves ; young and old cut through the air 

 in all directions. Starlings have visited the fruit in 

 numbers ; the poor things must have something for 

 their young. I have even seen the skylark in gar- 

 dens — most unusual places for him to come to. 



