THE HOMECOMERS 87 



them with the nightingale and the blackcap, 

 which only come to us in April, and then the non- 

 residents pile up a reserve of marks with white- 

 throat, chiffchaff, willow-wren, wood-wren, lesser 

 whitethroat, garden - warbler, Dartford warbler, 

 reed-warbler, sedge-warbler, marsh-warbler, grass- 

 hopper-warbler. 



Another more or less natural group of birds 

 gives us the sturdy little stonechat all the year 

 round, but we have to wait till summer for the 

 whinchat, the wheatear and that best of all 

 summer birds the redstart. The redstart naturally 

 introduces the spotted flycatcher and the pied, 

 which have no counterparts among our residents. 

 Neither have the swallow, the two martins, that 

 unique bird the swift, the goatsucker, nor the 

 cuckoo. The wryneck fills a lonely role on the 

 fringe of the woodpecker family, which gives 

 us otherwise three species that are with us the 

 year round, and the pigeons give us the same 

 respective figures, though the turtle-dove which 

 comes to us late in spring by its wide distribution 

 and its persistent crooning is as much in evidence 

 as the other three put together. 



A month ago there was not a more melancholy- 

 looking little bird than the winter-pipit. It was 

 in from its cold meadows where the moon daisies 

 dance in summer and mooning about the dung- 

 mixens and the cow-yards, right under the nose 

 of any one who went by, not making any but the 

 most belated attempt to get out of harm's way. 



