THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



277 



leaves, lined with dry grass. I put my finger 

 in the nest, and no sooner had I done so, 

 than out popped a beautiful little mouse. 

 It was a little larger than the common house 

 mouse, and of a beautiful light brown colour, 

 I caught hold of its tail, but the long fur 

 slipped oft, and the mouse ran up the tree 

 and we lost it. Altogether in the same 

 wood, we found four nests of the thrush, 

 containing eggs varying from three to five 

 in number. We also found a blackbird's 

 nest, the female was sitting on the eggs, and 

 had a narrow escape from being caught ; 

 there were five eggs in the nest, almost ready 

 to hatch. We also observed some splendid 

 specimens of the redstart, the marsh tit, the 

 wood wren, and young robins rather plenti- 

 ful. After a thorough good search through 

 the wood, we went on our way, and within 

 a very short distance of the hills to the right, 

 was another large thick wood, which looked 

 very tempting. We lost no time in getting 

 into it, and here we saw a splendid pair of 

 young nightingales, which are rather rare ; 

 also a turtle dove and lots of wood pigeons, 

 not in flocks but singly. Nests in this wood 

 seemed rather scarce, we only found two ; 

 one of the wood wren and the other of the 

 chaflinch, both empty. Wending our way 

 out brought us to our rendezvous, here we 

 had a splendid view of the country. We 

 could see the Hagley Monument and Clent 

 Hills very plainly. Going down the hills 

 we saw a pair of cuckoos ; Mr. Spicer, by 

 means of his two thumbs and mouth, gave a 

 capital imitation of the cuckoo's call, the 

 bird answered to it each time, and, in fact, 

 came flying round us for some time. A 

 little further on we found a nest of the lesser 

 whitethroat, containing four eggs ; in the 

 next hedge we found another nest of the 

 same kind, containing four naked young 

 ones, they looked very pretty all huddled 

 up together. Here we saw some boys throw- 

 ing stones at the birds, one of them was a 

 splendid marksman, he killed two white- 



throats and a lesser redpole, and gave them 

 to us. Turning back to the right we came 

 to large sand hole, where we saw large 

 numbers of sand martin's nests, we tried 

 our best to get to them, but were unsuccess- 

 ful. A little further on we turned into a 

 field, where we found a nest of the common 

 plover and a nest of the partridge contain- 

 eggs. On coming out of the field into the 

 road again we saw a beautiful male bull- 

 finch and a pair of whitethroats, we then 

 proceeded on our way to the station, and 

 caught the 5.30 train back to Birmingham. 

 On the lines we saw a young bird running 

 about, which proved to be a young titlark, 

 we brought it home alive. The rain came 

 down ,very heavily in the afternoon, and 

 having about three miles to walk to the 

 station, we got a real good so^^king, and 

 were very glad to get back homu again and 

 take our wet clothes off. Nothing is 

 pleasanter than a delightful ramble into the 

 country, where for a time you may fancy, 

 like the butterfly, that everything around 

 is your own. 



" What more felicity can fill a creature, 

 Than to enjoy clcUght with liberty ; 

 And to be Lord of all the works of nature, 

 To reign in the air from the earth to highest sky, 

 To feed on flowers and weeds of glorious feature, 

 To take whatever thing doth please the e>e : 

 Who rests not pleased with such happiness, 

 Well worthy ho to taste of wretchedness." 



BUTTERCUPS. 



By J. P. SouTTER, Bishop Auckland. 



" WiUlings of Nature, I dote upon you ; 



For ye waft mo to summers of old, 

 When the earth teemed around me with fairy delight, 

 And when daisies and buttercups gladdcuwi my sight. 



Like treasures of silver and gold." 



If we except the daisy, with which it is 

 often associated, there are no wild flowers 

 that arc better known or more abundant 

 than the buttercups. They are so generally 

 distributed that every child, who has visited 



