148 
NATURE NOTES. 
How delightful it was in the old-world days to which these 
notes refer, to watch the graceful wheatears, in pleasant family 
parties, dotted about over the downs ; to observe the motions 
and catch the pleasant chirpings of the stonechats and the whin- 
chats among the furze bushes ; to catch the swift and dazzling 
flight of the kingfisher, and find its nest by the river-bank ; to 
note the stately heron, patiently fishing in the stream, or sailing 
slowly off to another resting-place ; to look out for the early 
arrival of the spring migrants ; to hear the cuckoo’s welcome 
voice, or, by the delightful turr-turr of the turtledoves in the 
woods, to be reminded that for six months, at least, we might 
say, with Virgil’s klelibseus, 
“ Nec gemere aeria cessabit turtur ab ulmo.” 
Pleasant, too, though telling of winter’s approach, would it be 
to see every roof crowded with the swallow-tribe, and many 
a field by the cliffs covered with the beautiful yellow wagtails, 
when these birds were preparing to leave us for awhile for 
milder climes. 
In October the woodcocks would pour in, so exhausted in 
the early morning from their flight, that you could almost pick 
them up as they feebly moped along the ditches. Later on 
towards winter, the Norwegian thrushes would arrive, the field- 
fares and the redwings — the latter called by Linnaeus the night- 
ingale of Norway, but known by the local name of the wynnol — 
all seeking a region milder than their native shores ; and the 
motions of these birds it would be very interesting to observe 
through the cold weather, as they endeavoured to pick up a 
scanty sustenance from the lee sides of the hedges. 
In this district the life of almost every kind of bird might be 
studied, even down to the very swans, which, when frozen out 
of their lake at Abbotsbury, inside the eastern shore of the great 
bay, might be seen and heard, winging their way down the valley 
of the pleasant river, which flowed across three of the western 
shires to join the sea not far from Chalcombe Head. Interesting, 
too, would it be to see how the rare appearance of the kite 
would set all the small birds quivering ; and to hear the poultry 
in the farmyard piteously proclaiming the appearance of the 
enemy overhead. Pleasant also would it ever be to see the 
flights of terns sweep gracefully by, or to note the dotterels 
flitting about the beach beside the cove. A bit of nature’s 
secrets would be the finding of the habitat, rare in the south of 
England, of the dipper or water-ouzel — a song-bird that dives, 
and wades, and swims — to watch its motions under water, and 
to find its nest year after year in the same stream. 
The view from the Head is one of the finest along our fine 
coast. At one end of the great bay there stretches, outside, the 
grey mass of Portland ; at the other end we may see, in clear 
weather, past Torbay, Berry Head, and Dartmouth, that Start 
Point which bears, in its designation, the word which we have in 
