A BIRDLOVER'S YEAR 



the cock-birds arriving before the hens, 

 sings by day as well as by night, and con- 

 tinues its song till the first or second week 

 in June. The nest is constructed of dead 

 leaves loosely put together, and generally 

 placed under a bush. The distribution of 

 the nightingale has always been a problem 

 in ornithological geography. For instance, 

 why should this bird keep aloof from the 

 counties of Devon and Cornwall, counties 

 which seem so ideally suitable for these 

 birds if they would only come ? And yet 

 the nightingale has fixed boundaries which 

 it will not overstep. 



Summer is icumen in, 

 Loud sing cuckoo ! 



and by the first week in April this bird is 

 to be found in England. The wryneck 

 usually precedes it by ten days ; whilst the 

 nightjar is due about April 18. 



The swift is not one of the early arrivals ; 

 the end of April sees it in England, and the 

 beginning of May in Scotland. Perhaps the 

 first sight of the swift as it dashes through 

 the air is one of the pleasantest records in 

 the bird-lover's diary, for the swift seems 



41 



