96 THE RING OF NATURE 



impediments, the birds have thus far come back 

 to the places that knew them last year. With a 

 low seven-fold whistle in the orchard, the wryneck 

 said, ' Here.' The redstart wagged his red tail 

 from the dipping branch of the oak, the willow- 

 wren sang its ditty from a bramble spray in 

 Stitchwort Lane, the wood-wren showered its 

 descending tinkle from the top of the same horn- 

 beam that knew it last year, the nightingale of 

 Honeysuckle Lane has not really been poached, 

 and I heard him there again this afternoon. 



In due time I shall hear the same old turtle 

 dove crooning from the thicket top of a pollard 

 oak, shall hear the same old night- jar spin its 

 ' rattle note unvaried ' from the larch copse, growl 

 midnight anathemas at the same old corncrake 

 uttering its harsh call from the mowing grass all 

 night long. And then the tale of the homecomers 

 will be complete and summer at high tide. 



