The Yellow-Hammer 



CHAPTER III. 



THE HILLSIDE HEDGE: ITS BIRDS AND FLOWERS. — A GHEES 

 TRACK.— THE SPRINGHEAD. 



A LOW thick hawthorn hedge runs along some distance 

 below the earthwork just at the foot of the steepest part 

 of the hill. It divides the greensward of the down from 

 the ploughed land of the plain, which stretches two or 

 three miles wide, across to another range opposite. A few 

 stunted ash trees grow at intervals among the bushes, 

 which are the favourite resort of finches and birds that 

 feed upon the seeds and insects they find in the cultivated 

 fields. Most of these cornfields being separated only by a 

 shallow trench and a bank bare of underwood, the birds 

 naturally flock to the few hedges they can find. So that, 

 although but low and small in comparison with the copse- 

 like hedges of the vale, the hawthorn here is often alive 

 with birds : chaffinches and sparrows perhaps in the 

 greatest numbers, also yellowhammers. 



The colour of the yellowhammer appears brighter in 

 spring and early summer : the bird is aglow with a beau- 

 tiful and brilliant, yet soft yellow, pleasantly shaded with 

 brown. He perches on the upper boughs of the hawthorn 

 or on a rail, coming up from the corn as if to look around 

 him — for he feeds chiefly on the ground — and uttering two 

 or three short notes. His plumage gives a life and tint to 

 the hedge, contrasting so brightly with the vegetation and 



