BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
61 
in the village, its wildness and quiet became 
increasingly grateful. The silence of nature was 
broken only by bird sounds, and the most frequent 
sound was that of the yellow bunting, as, perched 
motionless on the summit of a gorse bush, his 
yellow head conspicuous at a considerable distance, 
he emitted his thin, monotonous chant at regular 
intervals, like a painted toy-bird that sings by 
machinery. There too, sedentary as an owl in the 
daytime, the corn bunting was common; a finch, 
but without the sprightliness characteristic of that 
family. The whin-chat was rarely seen, but I 
constantly met the small, prettily coloured stone- 
chat flitting from bush to bush, following and 
never ceasing his low, querulous, ticking chirp, 
anxious for the safety of his nest. Nightingales, 
black-caps, and white-throats also nested there, 
and were louder and more emphatic in their 
protests when approached. There were several 
grasshopper warblers on the common, all, very 
curiously as it seemed to me, clustered at one spot, 
so that one could ramble over miles of ground 
without hearing their singular note ; but on ap- 
proaching the place they inhabited one gradually 
became conscious of a mysterious trilling buzz or 
whirr, low at first, and growing louder and more 
stridulous, until the hidden singers were left behind, 
when by degrees it sunk lower and lower again. 
