6o 



SPRING 



very large number of birds. Almost all birds — even some of 

 the hawks and falcons — depend more or less on a free supply 

 of insect life in the nesting season ; and at that time there is 

 a far scantier choice of winged and creeping insects on the 

 open moors than in the lower woods and the enclosed 

 valleys. Insects become more abundant on the moors in 

 August; but by that time the birds have done nesting, and 

 many of them have already left the hills. This comparative 

 scarcity of insect life is one reason why many of the most 

 conspicuous moorland species are birds of prey, which feed 

 their young on other birds or young animals, and not on the 



WHITETHROAT 



insects or creeping things which fatten most other nestlings. 

 But another cause of the peculiar interest of the modern bird 

 life of the moors is the scarcity of the larger and wilder 

 species in cultivated and thickly peopled lowlands. Ravens, 

 buzzards and other birds of prey which once nested freely in 

 woods and groves have now been banished to the sanctuary 

 of the rocks, either on the moorlands and mountains or on 

 the shore ; and even such peaceable birds as peewits and 

 wheatears find a more congenial haunt on the untilled slopes 

 of the moors than on commons or rough fields in the 

 plains. 



Fascinating as it is to watch the bird life of the lower 

 valleys in the May days when the cuckoo is calling every- 



