128 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



robin, redstart, dunnock and wren. Furthermore, he 

 had discussed this subject with numbers of persons 

 living in the district, and their experience agreed with 

 his. His conclusion was that the meadow pipit was 

 the only dupe of the cuckoo, in spite of what was said 

 in the books. The conclusion was wrong, but his 

 facts may be right with regard to this particular district. 

 Doubtless, if this be so, there must be eggs laid from 

 time to time in the nests of other species, but in the 

 long run the instinct of parasitism on dunnock or wag- 

 tail or some other species would be swamped by that 

 of the majority of cuckoos, all parasites on the meadow 

 pipit exclusively. 



Of all the small musical sounds emitted by birds 

 on moors and other lonely places I think I love the 

 aerial tinkle of the pipit best, unless it be the warble 

 of the whinchat heard in the same situations. Few 

 persons appear to know the whinchat's song, yet it 

 may be heard every day from April to July all over 

 the country wherever the bird has its haunts. 

 The main thing is to know a sound when you hear 

 it. This chat is a shy singer as well as an incon- 

 spicuous bird, and as a rule becomes silent when 

 approached. One hears a delicious warble at a con- 

 siderable distance and does not know whose voice it is ; 

 but if on any silent heath or common or grassland, or 

 any furze-grown brambly waste, you should catch a 

 very delicate warbled song, a mere drop of sound, yet 

 to all other bird sounds about it like the drop of dew or 

 rain among many other crystal, colourless drops, which 



