THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS 



THE WOOD-WARBLERS 



THE time of the coming of birds extends with us 

 from the middle of March to the close of May. Their 

 coming is like their going silently, and in the night. 

 For it is one of the mysteries of migration that it is 

 performed in the darkness, and generally against 

 a head wind. When the first celandine lights up 

 the meadow, we know that in a few days the swallows 

 will be skimming over it. The turning up of the brown 

 land brings the wheat-ear, and the first flowering 

 elm the chiff-chaff. The pink-scaled buds of the 

 beech tell us when to look for the willow-warbler, 

 and now the greenfinch begins to troll to the sun. 

 Each flower has its bird, and so surely as the starry 

 gems march up the way, so the bird procession 

 silently comes. On some March morning we see 

 the vanishing white form of the fallow-chat. The 

 snow streaks have not yet gone from the fences, and 

 only the black ash-buds are showing. Catkins hang 

 on the hazel, and the first green plume-tufts on the 

 larch. The wheat-earjis the pioneer of the birds. It 



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