xi Departing Birds : an Epilogue 263 



ally walking or driving about the country, and I 

 doubt if we could well have missed any birds which 

 were about ; I was aided by two pairs of sharp young 

 eyes and ears, and was called upon to look at and 

 identify almost every bird that showed himself. Yet 

 it is a singular fact that until the very last day we 

 failed to bring the Skylark into our list. It could 

 hardly have been the case that the Larks were all 

 skulking in the standing corn, for it was being cut 

 all round us in the latter half of August. There 

 were plenty of Skylarks breeding here in the summer, 

 and there are plenty here now the first day of 

 October. If their absence in August is to be ex- 

 plained on the ground that they were hiding during 

 the moult, it is at least odd that not a single one 

 should have met our eyes during three weeks. I am 

 almost tempted to guess that our own Larks had left 

 the neighbourhood, possibly to migrate by the south 

 coast to the continent, and that the birds we have 

 with us now (1st October) are arrivals from the east 

 and north. But such a conjecture can have no 

 value unless it be supported by a long series of 

 observations ; and much may doubtless be urged 

 against it. 



Another familiar bird was also wholly missing 

 the Corn Bunting. Ours is a district in which this 

 bird delights, and I was under the impression that I 

 could produce one for inspection at any time of year. 



