172 Midland Village: Railway and Woodland. 



forget the astonishment of a companion who 

 hardly knew the bird, when I pointed him out a 

 Linnet in this splendid costume one July day on 

 a Radnorshire hill. 



The ground now rises towards the hills which 

 form the limit of our western horizon. On these 

 hills may now and then be seen a few birds which 

 we seldom meet with in the lower grounds, such 

 as the Stone-chat, the Brambling, the Wheatear ; 

 but as the hills are for the most part cultivated, 

 and abound in woods and brooks, the difference 

 between the bird life of the uplands and the low- 

 lands is not remarkable at any time of the year. 



It may be worth while, however, to note down 

 in outline the chief movements of the birds in our 

 district in the course of a single year. In Janu- 

 ary, which is usually the coldest month in the 

 year, the greater number of our birds are collected 

 in flocks in the open country, the villages only 

 retaining the ordinary Blackbirds, Thrushes, 

 Robins, &c. The winter migrants are in great 

 numbers in the fields, but they and almost all 

 other birds will come into villages and even into 

 towns in very severe weather. In February, 



