68 01^ SURREY HILLS. 



spotted woodpeckers, the greater and the lesser. 

 The nuthatch and the wryneck are here; as for 

 the cuckoos, they are all about. 



Leaving beautiful Ewhurst Hill, we come down 

 the long glade to Abinger. From here the road 

 takes us to those hills or downs called Hackhurst. 

 There the country has a different aspect, for the 

 soil is different, — it is chalk land on that ridge. The 

 fine turf is merely the facing of it, if we may term 

 it so. Bird-life differs too on this side of the valley, 

 and it is not so varied in character. The birds you 

 see most frequently will be rooks, jackdaws, starlings, 

 pigeons, wood and stock pigeons, or stock -doves, 

 wheat-ears, and sometimes, not often, that small 

 representative of the noble bustard — once so well 

 known on the South Down Hills — the thick-knee 

 or great plover, the stone curlew. He does well 

 here, for most of the land is sheep pasture ; and 

 what with beetles, mice, frogs, and worms, to say 

 nothing of other small trifles, he lives well. He is 

 rarely shot, for he is one of the wariest birds in 

 existence, or at least in this district : his large eyes 

 tell you at once that he feeds by night as well as 

 by day. The fields that are cultivated, those on 



