THE FAERY YEAR 



ringdove, after an aspiring love-flight, drops back 

 into the tree whence it started, it never precipi- 

 tates itself like the skylark ; rather, it gradually 

 lowers itself. 



This power to drop straight and swift, and to 

 recover without any effort before touching the 

 ground, which the skylark shows, might be useful to 

 our summer birds which are now beginning to come 

 in. Wheatears, wrynecks, and chirFchaffs in small 

 numbers reach us at the end of March as a rule, and 

 a few days later come indisputably the first cuckoos 

 in a forward season of migration, with the male 

 nightingales and a host of summer warblers. At 

 what height do these birds travel, and at what time 

 day or dark ? Mr. Eagle-Clarke noticed at the 

 Kentish Knock Lightship not long ago that migrating 

 birds of many species flew so low as almost to brush 

 the sea with their wings. I have seen blackbirds 

 and other common species coming thus over the 

 North Sea to the Norfolk coast in broad daylight. 

 A correspondent, a few years ago, gave me an 

 account of nightingales arriving in Kent. He saw 

 them coming in the daytime, and they flew very 

 low, only just above the water. 



Gatke's matchless study of migration in Heligo- 

 land points to other conclusions than these. It tends 

 to show that bird travel, in the main, takes place 

 after dark, and at a great height. During insignifi- 

 cant journeys from the Continent, say from the 

 French or Dutch coast to the English, it is reasonable 

 to assume that the birds would just drop across the 

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