138 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
shade as if the direct rays of the sun would burn their 
delicate wings; they hunt chiefly in the shade. The 
linnets will suddenly sweep up into the boughs and con- 
verse sweetly over your head. The sunshine lingers and 
grows sweeter as the autumn gives tokens of its coming 
in the buff bryony leaf, and the acorn filling its cup. 
They are so happy, the birds, yet there are few to listen 
to them. I have often looked round and wondered that 
no one else was about hearkening to them. Altogether, 
perhaps, they lead safer lives in England than anywhere 
else. We do not shoot them ; the fowlers do mischief, 
still they make but little impression ; there are few birds 
of prey, and there is not that fearful bloodthirstiness 
that makes a tropical forest so terrible in fact, under its 
outward show of glowing colour. There, with cruel 
hawks and owls, and serpents, and beasts of prey, a bird’s 
life is one long terror. ‘They are ever on the watch here, 
but they are not so fearfully harassed, and are not certain 
as it were beforehand to be torn to pieces. The land is 
well cultivated, and the more the culture the more the 
food for them. Frost and snow are their greatest encmies, 
but even these do not often last a great while. Itisa 
land of woods, and above all of hedges, which are much 
more favourable to birds than forests, so that they are 
better off in England than in other countries, From the 
sowing to the reaping, the wheat-field gives a constant 
dole like the monasteries of old, only here it is no crust, 
but a free and bountiful largess. Then the stubble 
must be broken up by the plough, and again there is 4 
fresh helping for them. Brown partridge, and black 
rook, and yellowhammer, all hues and degrees, come to 
the wheat-field. 
