MOORLAND BIRDS IN AUGUST 179 



obtained. It would indeed be a marvel if they were 

 recognised, since in most instances such birds would be 

 crammed into a game-bag - unexamined. 



It cannot, moreover, be made too clear that such few 

 ducks and waders from over-sea as do breed on British 

 moorlands bear no relationship whatever to those (even 

 though conspecific) that frequent our coasts in winter. 

 The former, in spring, without exception, fly direct from 

 their foreign haunts to the exact points at which they 

 intend to breed, never touching salt water at all. And in 

 very many cases, no sooner can their young fly, than these 

 birds leave us at once, returning direct to whence they 

 came. 



Several of the strictly summer-birds remain, of course, 

 on the moors during August, and even later. The 

 cuckoos have gone, except for a few late-fledged young ; 

 but nightjars still remain, skulking by day among heaviest 

 bracken and shaggy heather — especially among rocks — and 

 are seldom disturbed, as game avoid such places. They 

 are, nevertheless, commoner than they appear, and on 

 early autumnal evenings, hawk round the moorland woods, 

 and especially along roadsides. Young wheatears flick 

 about the stone-dykes, and ring-ouzels cling to the cleughs 

 and glens where they were bred. Many of the latter — 

 already on the move — congregate, along with thrushes, 

 missel-thrushes, and other birds on through-transit, among 

 the bracken-beds on the open fell. The attraction which 

 delays them is the ripening crop of mountain-berries 

 (especially bilberry), and caterpillars ; also, I believe, though 

 this I have not verified, the swarms of bluebottle flies 

 which infest the bracken. These ferns, as grouse-shooters 

 must observe, often swarm, at this season, with passage- 

 birds. Rooks, jackdaws, and packs of cushats also come 



