EARLY SPRING ON THE MOORS 37 



onwards, not a hedgerow or spinney, not a cleugh or 

 dene — not even a little straggling - patch of natural birch 

 or alder as far up on the fellside as trees can grow — 

 but resounds with his charming cheery trill. These 

 come literally in thousands : their congener, the Wood- 

 Wren {Sylvia sibilatrix), also comes, but in far sparser 

 numbers, and about ten days later. Yet this delicate 

 little warbler goes quite as far : its true home is amidst 

 sheltered vales and the deciduous woods of the low- 

 lands. There it abounds ; yet here, on the wild moors, 

 its vedettes penetrate to the furthest limits of tree- 

 growth, to stunted clumps of birch and rowan high 

 out in the most sequestered cleughs. Among such 

 spots are Blackburn linn, on Reedwater : another at 

 iooo feet, above East Neuk, near Elsdon. My brother 

 Alfred also found it breeding on North Uist, in the Outer 

 Hebrides, where there exist no trees at all. 



The chiffchafT, as already mentioned, arrives three 

 weeks earlier; ; but never penetrates the upland, or 

 ventures far from sheltering woodlands. 



The swallow and house-martin appear between April 

 20th and the end of the month. They are in no 

 characteristic sense moorland birds, and I only restate 

 the well-known fact here in faint hope that it may save 

 the impetuous from rushing into print year after year 

 with a report of "Swallows in March.'' Those early 

 "swallows" are all sand-martins. 



