THE ECHOED REDSTART 



The Echoed Redstart 



If swifts, swallows, and other summer birds of 

 passage go straight from their nesting homes in 

 England to Africa, many species drop away, I 

 believe, towards the coast at first by easy stages. 

 Among these is the little chiff chaff, who, delight- 

 ful to say, sings as he goes. I was visited by a 

 solitary chiff chaff at the beginning of the month, 

 which, a week ago, went constantly through his 

 " zip zap " lay whilst he searched for the green flies, 

 sometimes taking these off the tip or underside of 

 a rose leaf by that humming-bird hover which is so 

 characteristic of his near relation, the wood warbler. 

 The chiff chaff has moved on, and by now the 

 choice and lovely little redstarts have left their 

 haunt in the woods where we watched them early 

 in September. Their poignant, quick note of agita- 

 tion, "wheet, wheet," was so strong that, uttered 

 from a certain point on the railings, it was echoed 

 distinctly ; and one morning I had a strong fancy I 

 could just catch the faint echo of this redstart echo. 

 The place is no Anathoth of " hollow vales and hang- 

 ing woods," but what echoes it does give are full of 

 charm and mystery ; coming from the green deeps 

 of a lonely wood, these echoes always arrest or startle 

 one. 



Like the redstarts and chiff chaffs, the shrike is 

 leaving its summer haunts. We miss, from the old 

 thorns, by the unfenced road to the downs, its grey 

 bonnet and brown mantle, its peculiar glide down 



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