MAY 103 



robin-like, to seize a worm. Goldfinches sing amongst 

 the falling apple-blossom, which begins to cover the 

 grass under the trees with a carpet rose-tinted and 

 white. The shy hawfinch, too, is extremely partial 

 to these orchards. At first it appears as if every hole 

 held its brood of hungry, clamorous starlings. The 

 old birds are constantly arriving with food, chattering 

 and squalling. The green-woodpecker has no sooner 

 hewn out his burrow in the old pear-tree than he is 

 promptly evicted by these pushing and unscrupulous 

 neighbours. The wiser nuthatches have plastered 

 up the entrance to their tenement with clay, which 

 sets as hard as brick, leaving a way of ingress just 

 sufficient for themselves, but impossible for any bird of 

 larger bulk. But there are holes which are not roomy 

 enough for the starling. These are prime favourites 

 with the redstart, the tree-sparrow and the various 

 tits. Here, too, the Wryneck, with its delicately 

 pencilled plumage of brown and grey and black 

 which harmonizes so well with the colour of the bark, 

 skulks out of sight behind the branch up which it is 

 climbing, — a mysterious bird, so little seen that only 

 its loud monotonous cry of " pay, pay, pay," tells how 

 numerous it really is in the orchard country. By 

 lucky chance one may surprise it at an ant-hill, 

 where its long sticky tongue takes up the startled 

 emmets in crowds. If taken unawares in its nest- 

 hole, it hisses and squirms in such a way that its 



