1 74 Midland Village : Railway and Woodland. 



garden offers ample security for nesting, the pro- 

 portion of residents to migrants taking advantage 

 of it will be much greater than in a wood or on a 

 heath. 



Just as the population of the open country 

 begins to decrease in numbers in early spring, so 

 it increases rapidly in the first weeks of summer. 

 The young broods that have spent their infancy 

 in or near the village now seek more extended 

 space and richer supplies of food, and when the 

 hay is cut, they may be found swarming in all 

 adjacent hedges and on the prostrate swathes, 

 while the gardens are comparatively empty. But 

 before July is over an attentive watcher will find 

 that his garden is visited by birds which were not 

 born and bred there ; while the residents are 

 away in the fields, the migrants begin to be 

 attracted to the gardens by the ripening fruits 

 of all kinds. White-throats, Willow-warblers, 

 Chiff-chaffs, haunt the kitchen-garden for a while, 

 then leave it on their departure for the coast and 

 their journey southwards. After this last little 

 migration, the villages and gardens remain almost 

 deserted except by the Blackbirds and Thrushes, 



