Wild Life in a Southern Country Richard Jefferies Author - nouveau livre

WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY - PREFACE - THERE is a frontier line to civilization in this country yet, and not far outside its great centres we come quickly even now on the borderland of nature. Modern progress, except where it has exterminated them, has scarcely touched the habits of bird or animal so almost up to the very houses of the metropolis the nightingale yearly returns to her former haunts. If we go a few hours journey only, and then step just beyond the highway-where the steam ploughing engine has left the mark of its wide wheels on the dust-and glance into the hedgerow, the copse, or stream, there are natures children as unrestrained in their wild, free life as they were in the veritable backwoods of primitive England. So, too, in some degree with the tillers of the soil old manners and customs linger, and there seems an echo of the past in the breadth of their pronunciation. But a difficulty confronts the explorer who would cariy away a note of what he has seen, because nature is not cut and dried to hand, nor easily classified, each subject shading gradually into another. In studying the ways, for instance, of so common a bird as the starling, it cannot be separated from the farmhouse in the thatch of which it often breeds, the rooks with whom it associates, or the friendly sheep upon whose backs it sometimes rides. Since the subjects are so closely connected, it is best, perhaps, to take the places they prefer for the convenience of division, and group them as far as possible in the districts they usually frequent. The following chapters have, therefore, been so arranged as to correspond in some degree with the contour of the country. Commencing at the highest spot, anancient entrenchment on the Downs has been chosen as the startingplace from whence to explore the uplands. Beneath the hill a spring breaks forth, and, tracing its course down- wards, there next come the village and the hamlet. Still farther, the streamlet becomes a broad brook, flowing through meadows, in the midst of which stands a solitary farmhouse. The house itself, the garden and orchard, are visited by various birds and animals. In the fields immediately around-in the great hedges and the copseare numerous others, and an expedition is made to the forest. Roturning to the farm again as a centre, the rookery remains to be examined, and the ways and habits of the inhabitants of the hedges. Finally come the fish and wild-fowl of the brook and lake-finishing in the Vale. R. J. -- cO3V TETTS. - CHAPTER P AGE I. THE DOWNS-A n entrenchment - Ways of larks-Hares a corn bat-Happiness ofanimals - Ants a long journey . 13 11. A DROUGH T-A ncient garrison of the entrenchment-Traditions of forest-Curious ponds - A mirage . . . . 28 111. THE H ILLS H I E D D E G E-Its birds and flowers-A green track-The springhead . 55 IV. THE VILLAGE-T he washpool-Village industries-The belfry - Jackdaws-Village chronicles . 76 V. VILLAGE A RCHITECTUR - E The cottage preacher-Cottage society-The shepherd-Events of the village year . . 96 VI. THE H AMLE T-C ottage astrology - Ghost-lore-Herbs. THE WAGON AN D ITSCREW-S tiles, - The trysting - place - The thatcher-Smugglers-Ague . I I 4 VII. THE FARMHOUS - E Traditions - Hunting pictures - The farmers year - Sport - The auction festiva1-A summers day-Beauty of wheat . VIII. BIRDS OF THE FARMHO U - SE Speech of a starling-Population of a gable-The king of thehedge-The thrushs anvil I g j IX THE ORCHAR D-E migrant martins-The missel-thrush-Caravan route of birds and animals-A fox in ambush-A snake in a clock . X...