144 Wild Life in a Southern County 



the end of which comes right up to the apple-trees, being 

 only separated by the ha-ha wall and a ditch. This hedge, 

 dividing two meadows, is about two hundred yards long, 

 and well grown with a variety of underwood, hazel, wil- 

 low, maple, hawthorn, blackthorn, elder, &c, and studded 

 with some few elms and ashes, and a fine horse-chest- 

 nut. Down the ditch for some distance runs a little 

 stream (except in a long drought) ; and where another 

 hedge branches from it is a hollow space arched over and 

 roofed with boughs. Now this hedge is a favourite highway 

 of birds and other wild creatures, and leads direct to the 

 orchard. Most of the visitors to the house and garden 

 come down it — it is one of their caravan routes. 



If on a summer's morning you go and sit in the gateway 

 about half-way up the hedge, partly hidden by a pollard 

 ash and great hawthorn bushes, you will not have long 

 to wait before you hear the pleasant calls of the greenfinches 

 coming. They seem always to travel two or more pairs 

 together, and constantly utter a soothing call, as if to say 

 to their companions, ' Here we are, close by, dearest.' They 

 all appear to know exactly where they are going — flitting 

 across the gateway one by one, moving of one accord in the 

 same direction ; and their contented notes gradually become 

 inaudible as they go towards the orchard. The goldfinches 

 use the same route ; so do the bullfinches. Even the star- 

 lings, before they come to the house, usually perch on an 

 ash tree in this hedge. 



There is another hedge, running parallel to it, 150 yards 

 distant, the end of which also approaches the premises, but 

 it is comparatively deserted. You may wait there in vaiu 

 and see nothing but a robin. 



By the same caravan route the blackbirds come to the 

 garden; tbey, however, are not such travelling birds as the 



