A BIRDLQVER'S YEAR 



Swifts are not allied to swallows, being 

 structurally connected with the humming- 

 birds ; but this fact was not known to the 

 older naturalists, and Gilbert White of 

 Selborne constantly alludes to these graceful 

 birds as together forming one family. From 

 Tayside this bird departs by about the 

 middle of August. There is the puzzling 

 question as to whether these birds while 

 with us spend the entire night on the 

 wing. One sees them mounting higher 

 and higher, with unabated energy and 

 vitality ; and, wait as one may, one does 

 not see their descent. Yet there must 

 surely be some answer to this puzzle, 

 which so far has met with no satisfactory 

 solution. 



The sandpiper's arrival is one of the joys 

 of summer, and its musical whistle is first 

 heard about April. This little bird generally 

 has some favourite haunt, and when " put 

 up " from the shingle flies swiftly over the 

 water, keeping close to the surface, whistling 

 its melodious pipe. These notes somewhat 

 resemble the ringed plover's in tone, as 

 does also the quality of the flight. By the 

 end of September this mighty traveller 



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