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FIELDFARES 



THE GREAT MIGRATION 



April sees the departure of all the winter birds but a few 

 stragglers, and the incoming of the great mass of the summer 

 breeding species. Many of the birds of passage are also 

 passing through the country on their northward way. The 

 green sandpiper and the whimbrel are some of the best 

 known of these spring travellers ; the green sandpiper often 

 haunts sheltered streams with oozy banks for many days 

 together, and the loud call of the whimbrel falls from the sky 

 in the spring nights. Many other birds of passage belong to 

 species which also nest in ordinary English neighbourhoods ; 

 and these can only be guessed at, not certainly identified, by 

 their restless movements and their departure soon after they 

 appear. Even in the case of summer visitors, such as the 

 tree-pipit or whinchat, there is often an interval of a week or 

 more between the passing of the first parties, bound for more 

 distant haunts, and the arrival of the nesting pairs. 



The departure of the birds of winter is far less noticeable 

 than the arrival of long-looked-for visitors like the cuckoo 

 and swallow ; and it is apt to be entirely overlooked. Most 

 of the winter visitors depart unobtrusively and early ; but 

 fieldfares on the eve of departure are often more conspicuous 

 than at any other time. They gradually collect into large 



