IN FLIGHT TIME 181 
birds, from the raptores down to the swimmers and 
waders, feed more or less on insects, according to the 
seasons. Some of the larger beetles are eagerly 
sought for when flying or resting, and, of course, 
during the nesting season the young of the greater 
portion of our British birds are fed exclusively on in- 
sects. Look only in the mouth of any common bird 
when it has young to feed some rook, starling, 
blackbird, thrush, or sparrow, that may have been 
wantonly shot and you will never allow another to 
be shot when nesting, if you can prevent it. Of 
course, as I have said before, the birds will, when their 
time comes, take their share of the garden fruits and 
vegetables ; that will, however, be when they have 
done nesting. 
But birds are now flighting to and fro in numbers ; 
some of them migrating in earnest, others indulging 
in those restless movements which are peculiar to 
some before they take their final flight. The stone- 
curlew, the great plover or thick-knee, is one of these. 
He frequents the great flint-cumbered fallow-fields 
bordering on the uplands. From these he flits, as the 
dusk comes on, to the close-cropped sheep-walks on 
the downs, where he startles the shepherd's boy with 
his mournful cry ; the note is peculiar, so is the bird's 
flight. 
