A BIRDLOVER'S YEAR 



the nests, each composed of dry grass, with 

 a few feathers, and containing four or six 

 pure-white eggs at a time, there being 

 generally two broods in a season. To watch 

 the sand-martins hawking up and down 

 the river is a charming sight. They fly 

 to and fro rather like bats, and during the 

 breeding-time the parent birds feed their 

 young most assiduously. It is always such 

 a sad day when these summer visitors depart ! 

 One imagines them winging their way to 

 their winter quarters in China, India, and 

 south-eastern Africa, where, alas ! one cannot 

 follow them, and now one must wait another 

 seven or eight months until one can see 

 them again. How true were the lines that 

 Christina Rossetti wrote : 



The days are clear, 



Day after day, 

 When April's here 



That leads to May ; 

 And June 

 Must follow soon. 



Stay, June, stay ! 

 If only we could stop the moon, 



And June. 

 74 



