32 studip:s in bird-migration 



an attraction, and that since the days of Gilbert White 

 so much attention has been bestowed on this singularly 

 fascinating branch of ornithology. 



Now let us consider the various classes of migratory 

 birds to be observed in our islands, which include repre- 

 sentatives of all the known phases of the migratory habit. 



Summer Visitors.^ — In spring we welcome the 

 appearance of a number of birds, many of them of 

 delicate and graceful form and not a few of delightful 

 song, which arrive to spend the summer with us. 

 These visitors add immeasurably to the joyousness of 

 spring, and play an important part in its pageant. They 

 come to us from the south, in whose genial climes they 

 have passed the months of the drear northern winter, 

 having travelled far, some of them very far, to reach 

 our isles : not a few have winged their way from 

 Southern Africa ; many from the equatorial regions of 

 the same continent ; and many, again, from the countries 

 bordering upon the western shores of the Mediterranean 

 Sea. These birds rear their broods in our midst, and 

 during the autumn take their departure (as do their 

 offspring) to seek again their far-off winter retreats. 

 These summer visitors number over fifty different 

 species. They are a varied set of guests, and frequent 

 all manner of haunts. The Ring Ouzel seeks the 

 moorlands, the Wheatear the waste lands and downs, 

 the Willow Warbler, Blackcap, and Nightingale the 

 woodlands and copses, the Sedge Warbler the river 

 and brookside, the Swallow, Martin, and Swift the 

 haunts of man, the Flycatcher our gardens, the White- 

 throat the hedgerows, the Nightjar the heath, the 



' P^or a list of the British Suinmer Visitors, with an indication of their 

 winter quarters, see page 46. 



