A BIRD-HAUNTED PINE GROVE. 
145 
about niceties, ascribed at once to those ever-convenient builders, 
the Druids. 
But the chief of all memories in the region are those that 
arise for the delight of the lover of nature. Near the old abbey 
there lived in the last century a high priest of nature who called 
especial attention to the picturesque beauty of trees all over our 
land, more especially in the district in which he lived and 
laboured, where trees lay in abundance all around him. 
And along the route followed, for ages, by pilgrims to one 
shrine, we may, in another part of the district make our pilgrim- 
age to the place where lived and died another such high priest, 
the quiet observer to whom we owe more than to any writer and 
observer whatsoever, the naturalist who called special attention 
to our bird-life, and who has sent many a man to the culture of 
that knowledge which has been found to form, in leisure, one of 
the great joys of life. When visiting the shrines of these 
naturalists, or reading their charming works, we feel a renewed 
ardour for such researches, and go, with an added delight, to 
that study to which they have so wisely directed us. From 
such studies, or from the visit to such shrines, we may well go, 
“ Knowing that nature never did betray 
The heart that loved her : ’lis her privilege, 
Through all the years of this our life, to lead 
From joy to joy : for she can so inform 
The mind that is within us, so impress 
With quietness and beauty, and so feed 
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, 
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, 
Kor greetings where no kindness is, nor all 
The dreary intercourse of daily life. 
Shall e’er prevail against us, or disturb 
Our cheerful faith, that all that we behold 
Is full of blessings.” 
In a district so rich in such objects of varied interest, we 
find opportunities to cultivate all tastes, and to gratify and 
enhance every predilection. With many of us, the taste that 
lasts longest, perhaps, and finds most materials for study, is one 
that gathers round the central region, and leads us to think of 
former visits, and to look forward to visits to come, in the 
district that may well be called, as it has been here, a bird- 
haunted pine-grove. 
W. J. C. Miller. 
Richmond-OH-Thames. 
Cuckoo and Pipit. — Though most birds hold the cuckoo in great detes- 
tation, which dislike probably arises from the cuckoo bearing a distant resem- 
blance to one of the smaller hawks, yet as is well known, there is a certain small 
bird which, far from regarding the cuckoo with hatred, appears fascinated by it, 
and follows it wherever it goes. It is said to be the meadow pipit, lias it ever 
been explained w hy this little bird follows the cuckoo so persistently ? 
Fyfield, Abingdon. W. H. Warner. 
