. Woodland, field and shore : wild nature depicted with pen and camera . birds breedin Epping Forest ; but although I have counteddozens of their old nests during a days ramble, whenthe trees have been bare, I have seldom found themin the breeding season. On the Surrey hills theyalso breed in fair numbers ; there are so many wild,unfrequented woods, that one would expect to meetwith them more often than is the case. A SURREY COMMON 193 At the end of this small wood much healthfulhcathland still stretches on before. A sprightly littlebird calls cJiakchak from the yel-low gorse as hehops from bu
. Woodland, field and shore : wild nature depicted with pen and camera . birds breedin Epping Forest ; but although I have counteddozens of their old nests during a days ramble, whenthe trees have been bare, I have seldom found themin the breeding season. On the Surrey hills theyalso breed in fair numbers ; there are so many wild,unfrequented woods, that one would expect to meetwith them more often than is the case. A SURREY COMMON 193 At the end of this small wood much healthfulhcathland still stretches on before. A sprightly littlebird calls cJiakchak from the yel-low gorse as hehops from bushto bush. His jetblack head andwhite collar showhim to be a Stone-chat. He is essen-tially a bird of theheathland, and isassociated in mymind with thelonely \ e 11 o wgorse-coveredmoors of the XeuForest. Like thetwo birds firstmentioned inthis chapter, theStonechat is localand keeps to thesame breeding- . ■- - ground each year. One of the places in Middlesexwhere this species breeds, is in a small churchyardsituated in one of the most densely populated districts 13. 194 WOODLAND, FIELD, AND SHORE within the twelve-mile radius of London. These areno doubt descendants of those birds which nestedhere when the picturesque ivy-covered church stoodalone, amidst sylvan surroundings of far-stretchingfields, and wild marshes in which the Bittern was wontto boom. What a contrast is now seen ! But still, theStonechat, with that strange love for its ancestralground which is found alike in birds and humanbeings, rears its young amid the white tombstones. But to return to our Surrey common. As we getnearer to the golden furze, the excited Stonechat callsvehemently and tries to attract us from its would be almost impossible to find the nest bysearching, but luckily the hen, startled by footsteps,rises from a grass clump, and there is the site. Howannoyed the cock appears to be ; how he scolds andhops from bush to bush, while his quieter mate mean-while anxiously remains ;on a grass
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectnatural, bookyear1901
