CHAPTER XVI 



AUTUMN ON THE MOORS 



(i) September 



Early autumn on the moorland is marked by a double 

 characteristic. There is a period of exodus, followed by 

 a period of hiatus. August has witnessed both the com- 

 pleted withdrawal of the summer-visitants from the hill- 

 country ; and also the commencement of that through- 

 transit of conspecific birds which have summered in the 

 more northerly portions of these islands, but not beyond 

 them. For neither in August nor in September can there 

 be traced, on the moorland, evidence of any considerable 

 influx from foreign parts to compensate for these losses 

 by withdrawal. That compensation will come later — in 

 October and November. Meanwhile we must endure, in 

 August and September, what I have called a hiatus — by 

 way of counterbalance to that "double stock" of the birds 

 in question which (as described at p. 1 5) we enjoyed during - 

 the months of March and April. 



These remarks refer specially to the moorland ; since 

 on the coast the case is widely different. There, on tidal 

 estuary, salt-slake, and sandflat, that influx for which one 

 looks in vain on the hills is patent enough — torrential 

 would scarce be too strong- a description. These wastes, 



ISO 



