weather must have forgot the north-country The 

 proverb, ' As long as the laverock sings before ^. e ^f lc ^ s . 

 Candlemas it will greet after it.' 



The lark and the blackbird are, in truth, 

 such irresponsible singers, have such glad 

 irrepressible hearts, that they will sing in the 

 dead of winter, if only the wind slides through 

 a windless air and the sunshine is unclouded. 

 Tens of thousands have gone oversea, but 

 thousands remain ; and these are not to be 

 chilled into silence if but the least excuse be 

 given for the unsealing of the founts of joy. 

 In green Decembers one may hear the merle's 

 notes fluting down the wet alleys as though 

 Christmas were still a long way off; but the 

 wary will recall another north-country saying 

 akin to that just quoted concerning the lave- 

 rock . . . 'When the blackbird sings before 

 Christmas she will cry before Candlemas.' 



So now I shall leave the Tribe of the Plover 

 to a succeeding article, and, speaking of the 

 skylark and his spring comrades, allude to 

 that mysterious March wayfaring of the 

 winged people which is so enthralling a 

 problem in the psychology of bird-life. 



The whole problem of Migration is still a 

 mystery, but an enhancement of this mystery 

 is in the irregularity and incompleteness of the 

 working out of this all but universal instinct, 



8 9 



