Country life -- England; England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Natural history -- Outdoor books
Beside the copse on the sward by the Long Ditton road is a favourite
resort of peacock butterflies. On sunny days now one may often be
seen there floating over the grass. White butterflies go
flutter-flutter, continually fanning; the peacock spreads his wide
wings and floats above the bennets. Yellow or sulphur butterflies
are almost rare--things common enough in other places. I seldom see
one here, and, unless it is fancy, fewer the last two seasons than
previously.
In the ploughed field by Southborough Park, towards the Long Ditton
road, partridges sometimes call now as the sun goes down. The corn
is yet so short and thin that the necks of partridges stand up above
it. One stole out the other evening from the hedge of a field beside
the Ewell road into the corn; his head was high over the green
blades. The meadow close by, the second past the turn, is a
favourite with partridges, though so close to the road and to
Tolworth Farm. Beside Claygate Lane, where the signpost points to
Hook, there is a withybed which is a favourite cover for hares.
There is a gateway (on the left of the lane) just past the signpost,
from which you can see all one side of the osiers; the best time is
when the clover begins to close its leaves for the evening. On May
3, looking over the gate there, I watched two hares enjoying
themselves in the corn; they towered high above it--it was not more
than four or five inches--and fed with great unconcern, though I was
not concealed. A nightingale sang in the bushes within a few yards,
and two cuckoos chased each other, calling as they flew across the
lane; once one passed just overhead. The cuckoo has a note like
'chuck, chuck,' besides the well-known cry, which is uttered
apparently when the bird is much exerted. These two were quite
restless; they were to and fro from the fields on one side of the
lane to those on the other, now up the hedge, now in a tree, and
continually scolding each other with these 'chuck-chucking' sounds.
Chaffinches were calling from the tops of the trees; the chaffinches
now have a note much like one used by the yellow-hammer, different
from their song and from their common 'fink tink.' I was walking by
the same place, on April 24, when there was suddenly a tremendous
screaming and threatening, and, glancing over the fields bordering
on the Waffrons, there were six jays fighting. They screamed at and
followed each other in a fury, real or apparent, up and down the
hedge, and then across the fields out of sight. There were three
jays together in a field by the Ewell road on May 1.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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