in wild life was not to be hoped for.

That old grey, crumbling wall of ancient Calleva, crowned with big oak
and ash and thorn and holly, and draped with green bramble and trailing
ivy and creepers--how good a shelter it is on a cold, rough day! Moving
softly, so as not to disturb any creature, I yet disturbed a ring snake
lying close to the wall, into which it quickly vanished; and then from
their old place among the stones a pair of blue stock-doves rushed out
with clatter of wings. The same blue doves which I had known for three
years at that spot! A few more steps and I came upon as pretty a little
scene in bird life as one could wish for: twenty to twenty-five small
birds of different species--tits, wrens, dunnocks, thrushes, blackbirds,
chaffinches, yellowhammers--were congregated on the lower outside twigs
of a bramble bush and on the bare ground beside it close to the foot of
the wall. The sun shone full on that spot, and they had met for warmth
and for company. The tits and wrens were moving quietly about in the
bush; others were sitting idly or preening their feathers on the twigs
or the ground. Most of them were making some kind of small sound--little
exclamatory chirps, and a variety of chirrupings, producing the effect
of a pleasant conversation going on among them. This was suddenly
suspended on my appearance, but the alarm was soon over, and, seeing me
seated on a fallen stone and, motionless, they took no further notice
of me. Two blackbirds were there, sitting a little way apart on the bare
ground; these were silent, the raggedest, rustiest-looking members of
that little company; for they were moulting, and their drooping wings
and tails had many unsightly gaps in them where the old feathers had
dropped out before the new ones had grown. They were suffering from that
annual sickness with temporary loss of their brightest faculties which
all birds experience in some degree; the unseasonable rains and cold
winds had been bad for them, and now they were having their sun-bath,
their best medicine and cure.

By and by a pert-looking, bright-feathered, dapper cock chaffinch
dropped down from the bush, and, advancing to one of the two, the
rustiest and most forlorn-looking, started running round and round him
as if to make a close inspection of his figure, then began to tease
him. At first I thought it was all in fun--merely animal spirit which
in birds often discharges itself in this way in little pretended