4 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



their fixed and appointed seasons. They arrive, pair, nest, 

 and batch their young almost without reference to climatic 

 conditions, and many a moorland chick first sees the light 

 in an atmosphere and under circumstances which would 

 appear necessarily fatal to its tender life. Small wonder 

 that the vast majority of the strong-winged birds — the ducks, 

 geese, and other wildfowl — should prefer the Arctic regions 

 for their incunabula. The words may cause a shudder to 

 those who only associate them with thick-ribbed ice, 

 with intense cold, and manifold forms of death. Yet, 

 though the Polar summer is short, it is unquestion- 

 able that the Ai'ctic lands, with their three months of 

 uninterrupted sunshine, their boundless wastes of marsh 

 and moor, and profuse wealth of plant and insect-life, 

 afibrd conditions of life to the feathered tribes infinitely 

 more favourable than does the spring climate of our 

 temperate zone. 



But I must not do injustice to the season, and would be 

 drawing too gloomy a picture of the North British spring- 

 time if I omitted to mention the few spells of bright and 

 warm days which, at uncertain intervals, do occur to break 

 the monotony of even the most inclement springs. Oases 

 in a desert they may be in many cases ; but not for that 

 reason is their advent the less welcome and delightful — 

 quite the reverse. I am not alluding to those shams, those 

 deceptive spring-like days when brilliant sunshine co-exists 

 with a biting north-easter ; when April showers descend in 

 the form of fine snow or cutting hailstones; when one is 

 baked in the shelter and frozen in the shade — such days are 

 as false and illusory as they are common at this season. 

 They are, perhaps, preferable to the fog and rain, but bear 

 no comparison whatever to the truly vernal hours when the 

 winds blow soft and warm from the west and south with the 

 first touch of the zephyr in their breath. 



On such mornings as these, when the sunshine bathes 

 the water-logtred moors in unwonted warmth, drying the 

 dripping heather and moss, every creature appears inspired 

 by the spirit of the vernal season. The moor-birds pipe 

 and whistle in n wholly diiTerent key to their querulous 



