86 
IN SHERWOOD FOREST. 
Apr., 1889. 
on, Coots clanked, now and then the “ chuckle ” of a Moorhen 
or the subdued quack of a Wild Duck was heard, and the 
distant call of the Peewits smote softly on the ear. 
One summer four pairs of Grasshopper Warblers were 
nesting round the house, and I once had an interesting inter¬ 
view with this shy species at closer quarters than it has been 
my luck to be on any other occasion. While the male of a 
pair, which haunted a little osier bed, was singing loudly one 
evening. I managed to creep close up to it, along the 
boundary hedge, and, after severel cursory sights of it as it 
flitted about among the osiers or crept in a mouse-like way up 
the slender wands, I at length marked it in the hedge. 
Pushing my face cautiously in among the leafy twigs, I found 
myself within eighteen inches of the bird, which showed up 
clearly against the light as it sat in a rather upright position 
singing loudly. During the delivery of the “ trill ” the bill 
is open to its widest extent, and the mandibles are motionless. 
The head meanwhile is slowly turned from side to side, and 
this, and the varied pitch at which the song is delivered, 
produces the ventriloquism often spoken of. 
Truly this is a land of oaks, and many are the venerable 
specimens celebrated in local tradition. On this side of the 
forest the most noted is, perhaps, that under which King John 
held a Parliament; but a finer sight by far is presented by 
the famous trees locally known as the “ Hayward Oaks,” 
which are scattered over the paddocks around a farmstead near 
Blidworth. Some two hundred in number, they are said to 
date back to the time of the Conquest, and though long past 
their prime, the spreading branches of many of them still 
cover wide spaces, and they are annually clothed with fresh 
rich green ; some of them of enormous girth, in their gnarled 
and rugged beauty this collection of ancient oaks can, 
perhaps, hardly be matched anywhere in England. Many 
Stock Doves breed in the hollows of the oaks, and here a very 
curious hybrid, between one of these birds and a dovecot 
pigeon from the farmstead, was reared a year or two ago. It 
had been seen frequenting the oaks for some little time, and 
was at last with difficulty secured, as it was very wild. A 
coloured figure of this bird is given in Mr. Mosley’s work on 
•‘British Birds.” 
Tradition assigns to the neighbourhood of Rainworth 
the scene of some of Robin Hood's exploits. The Cave Pond, 
a favourite resort of Shovellers, &c., is locally believed to have 
been the one across which Friar Tuck was compelled to carry 
that worthy on his shoulders ; and “ Bishop’s Hill,” where 
the prelate danced with assumed and unfelt gaiety, is close at 
hand. 
