BIRDS OF THE PEAK 127 



supposed to be its foster parents — warblers, wagtails, 

 chats, the robin, redstart, dunnock and wren. Further- 

 more, he had discussed this subject with numbers 

 of persons living in the district, and their experience 

 agreed with his. His conclusion was that the meadow 

 pipit was the only dupe of the cuckoo, in spite of 

 what was said in the books. The conclusion was 

 wrong, but his facts may be right with regard to this 

 particular district. Doubtless, if this be so, there 

 must be eggs laid from time to time in the nests of 

 other species, but in the long run the instinct of 

 parasitism on dunnock or wagtail or some other 

 species would be swamped by that of the majority of 

 cuckoos, all parasites on the meadow pipit exclusively. 

 Of all the small musical sounds emitted by birds 

 on moors and other lonely places I think I love the 

 aerial tinkle of the pipit best, unless it be the warble 

 of the whinchat heard in the same situations. Few 

 persons appear to know the whinchat's song, yet it 

 may be heard every day from April to July all over 

 the country wherever the bird has its haunts. The 

 main thing is to know a sound when you hear it. 

 This chat is a shy singer as well as an inconspicuous 

 bird, and as a rule becomes silent when approached. 

 One hears a delicious warble at a considerable dis- 

 tance and does not know whose voice it is; but if 

 on any silent heath or common or grassland, or any 

 furze-grown brambly waste, you should catch a very 

 delicate warbled song, a mere drop of sound, yet to 

 all other bird sounds about it like the drop of dew 

 or rain among many other crystal, colourless drops, 



