"Behold the Birds of the Air" 63 



teresting as the appearance in spring of the Cuckoo or 

 the Swallow; but it is by quartering a district out into 

 habitats for different species, that it adds chiefly to the 

 interest of a country walk. There is the upland moor, 

 where may be sought the Snow-bunting in winter, and 

 the Ring-ousel in summer; the fir- woods, which are sure 

 to exhibit a nomadic company of Gold-crests, Red-polls, 

 and Cole-tits, perhaps a family caravan of Long-tailed 

 Tits; the swampy bits down below, which the Sedge- 

 warbler enlivens with his petulant chatter and comical 

 mimicries ; the sheltered spot where far into the winter 

 the Grey Wagtail sera moratur. Sometimes there is one 

 spot, and one only, in a whole country side, where a 

 Wood-wren or a Chiff-chaff may be heard, or a Dab- 

 chick seen. 



Nor will the observer be long at work before he dis- 

 covers, as in other branches of natural investigation, 

 what marvels lie hid behind the veil which hitherto he 

 has been contented not to lift. Before we begin to train 

 our eyes by using them, we are vaguely conscious that 

 there are birds of various species in our woodlands and 

 our fields, and that of these species some come and go 

 at their appointed times. It turns out in fact that, 

 except during the comparatively brief period when they 

 are anchored to one spot by the all-absorbing solicitude 

 of nesting, the tide of bird-life is in a continual ebb and 

 flow. In winter, with every spell of frost, numbers move 

 away seawards, and with every promise of open weather 

 return inland. In the later summer, migration of indi- 

 viduals, and even of larger bodies, sets in long before 

 the season when a whole species disappears. Many 

 birds, which we suppose to be always with us, are re- 

 ported by observers at sea or along the coast as furnishing 

 their quota to the army of migrants Jackdaws for 

 instance, and Rooks, and even the familiar Robin. Our 

 home-bred Larks, we are told, dwell in their native 

 fallows only until others of foreign origin come in and 

 dispossess them, and then move off to do the same, 

 presumably, by others. Nor are their routes of travel 



