8 



BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



The following list gives a rough outline of the various 

 birds which come to breed on the Northumbrian moorlands, 

 together with the approximate (average) dates of their 

 arrival : — 



Peewit (in-egular) . 



Golden Plover (irregular) 



Skylark . 



Curlew 



Pied Wagtail 



Titlark 



Stockdove 



Grey Wagtail 



Wheatear 



Ring-Ouzel 



Redshank 



Blackheaded Gull 



Dunlin 



Hirundines 



Cuckoo 



Sandpiper 



Willow-Wrens 



Landrail . 



Nightjar . 



February, or even 

 end of January. 

 February. 

 February. 

 February. 

 February (end). 

 March (early). 

 March (middle). 

 March (middle). 

 March (end). 

 March (end). 

 March (end). 

 March (end). 

 April (early). 

 April. 

 April (end). 

 April (end). 

 April (end). 

 May (early). 

 May (middle). 



Several of the above birds, it will be noticed, belong to 

 species which are found in this country at all seasons of 

 the year. As such, they may therefore be thought out of 

 place in a list oi niifimnts. But they are not so. Migration 

 is far more general and universal among birds than is 

 commonly, or popularly, supposed. It is, of course, a 

 matter of common knowledge that such birds as the Swallow, 

 the Cuckoo, and the Willow- Wren, are distinctly foreign 

 migrants. Their summer and winter haunts are far apart, 

 separated by a belt of sea and land : consequently their re- 

 appearance here every April, after a total absence of six or 

 seven months, is markedly conspicuous, and appeals at 

 once to eye or ear in an unmistakable manner. Their 

 annual migrations, in short, are so patent as to be obvious 

 even to the least observant. 



Rut there are other classes of wanderers whose move- 

 ments are not so conspicuous ; but which arc, nevertheless, 



