162 A Day in the Cork Woods 
These lovely birds arrive with most extraordinary punctuality 
year after year, at first in small parties of a dozen or so and then 
in continuous streams. Their call is unlike that of any other bird, 
a curious liquid double note, which at times, when many are 
over, seems almost to fill the air with its sound. And 
passing 
A GLADE IN THE CORK WOODS. 
a very joyful sound it is, for it is an unmistakable proof that 
spring is upon the land. The first arrivals are usually heard 
about 4 to 7 April and from that date onward parties pass 
overhead for weeks, scattering all over southern Europe. The 
climax to the migration, according to Colonel Irby’s and my own 
