J. E. LITTLEBOY THE BIRDS OF OTJK DISTRICT. 27 



sunnier climes, and once again to hasten to their northern homes 

 when the genial breath of spring invites them to return ? 



" There is a power whose care 



Teaches their way along that pathless coast, 

 The desert and illimitahle air, 

 Lone wandering hut not lost." 



It has been well said that "the home of the swallow is the whole 

 habitable earth. It knows nothing of winter's cold ; its whole 

 life is a continued festivity, and its song an eternal hymn in 

 praise of summer and liberty." It is quite tnie that "one swallow 

 does not make a summer," for isolated birds are occasionally seen 

 during every month of the year ; but, not the less for this, it 

 is universally regarded as the auspicious harbinger of spring, and 

 is welcomed with delight by all. Every one must have noticed the 

 extremely graceful movements of these birds, but nowhere can 

 they be seen to greater advantage than when lightly skimming the 

 surface of the water, rising and falling in their flight, or wheeling 

 round in graceful curves, as they chase the tiny insects that con- 

 stitute their food. Much has been written respecting the habits 

 of the swallow during the winter months. It was formerly 

 believed that they all remained with us in a state of hibernation, 

 and Dr. Johnson makes a statement on this subject which is probably 

 about as correct as many other of the Doctor's famous dicta. 

 " Swallows," says Dr. Johnson, " certainly do sleep all the winter. 

 A number of them conglobulate together by flying round and round, 

 and then, all in a heap, throw themselves under water and lie in the 

 bed of a river." The truth appears to be that by far the larger 

 portion of them migrate southwards during the autumn months, 

 but that a few actually remain and hibernate amongst us. I ex- 

 tract the following from a letter by the Rev. F. 0. Morris, 

 published in 'The Times': — "I was told by a person, who 

 vouches for it as a fact, that not long ago, he, or a friend of his, 

 watched, one autumn, a brood of young swallows too weakly to 

 be able to follow their parents in their migration, and so the old 

 birds left them in their nests and plastered them up with mud. 

 When spring arrived he was anxiously and daily on the look-out 

 for the old birds. At length they came, proceeded at once to the 

 old nest, removed the plaster- work, and aroused the young ones, 

 who were none the worse for their six months' incarceration." 

 Then comes an explanatory foot-note — " By swallows, no doubt 

 the person meant martins." I must now leave the graceful 

 swallow — 



" Flying, flying south," — 



and hasten to complete the remainder of my task. 



The whirring note of the nightjar is heard not unfrequently at 

 Hunton Bridge, and one was shot recently at Chipperfield. In the 

 same neighbourhood the green woodpecker is tolerably plentiful. 

 A specimen of the lesser spotted woodpecker has been taken at 

 King's Langley. and one of the great spotted woodpecker at South 

 End, near Eedbourn. The wryneck, or cuckoo's mate as it is 



