SEPTEMBER BIRDS 



wing when there rings out from above the farm the 

 shrill, petulant cry of a kestrel. It was only extracted 

 from the innocent mouse-hunter by the bullying of the 

 farmyard pigeons. But the swallows take no chance of 

 being prevented from sailing on their holiday. 



THE flight of the wagtail is so erratic as to suggest it 

 cares not where it goes. We may suppose 

 The that the wagtails which now emigrate may 



Wayward be surprised to find themselves at sea; 

 Wagtail others may wonder why they never see 

 foreign lands. As day by day Peggy Dish- 

 washer dances waywardly about some sunny stable- 

 yard, or acts the part of a lily-pond's nymph, or of 

 sprite on a lawn, it gives us a remarkable example of a 

 bird disdaining, or perhaps forgetting, to follow the 

 general custom of its kind. Another strange example is 

 the unsociable starling, which is content to whistle from 

 a chimney-pot the Autumn through though its brethren 

 flock after adventures. 



THIS month the little Jack snipe comes faithfully back 

 all things having gone well with it 

 The Deaf through the Summer in Northern Europe 

 Snipe ' to the self-same clump of rushes which 

 gave it shelter in the water-meadow last 

 Winter. The French call it " the deaf snipe," from the 

 way it lies low if danger threatens, so that it may 

 almost be trodden underfoot before it rises, to flit off 

 on butterfly-like flight and to drop unexpectedly just 

 when the sportsman thinks it has reached a fair distance 

 for a shot. The classical story of the Jack snipe tells how 



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