40 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



returns infallibly to its old haunts to limestone 

 wall, to boulder-strewn escarpment, to sand dune 

 by the sea. This is Tennyson's " sea-blue bird of 

 March," and everywhere among the sea-pinks it 

 causes a new light and a new interest in every stranded 

 boulder. 



As April passes up the budding way and proceeds 

 on into May, the delicate wood-warblers return to 

 their leafy haunts . And in the ' ' Domain ' ' we always 

 first find them. The Domain is a rounded, rocky 

 wood. Tangled briers and lichens hang from every 

 slope, and in the holes and dark recesses dwell our 

 semi-domesticated badgers. Creepers festoon the 

 rocks, and wild thyme covers the slopes. Trailing 

 periwinkle and bluebells hang over the nests of the 

 ground birds, and the warblers all come there in the 

 spring. In the Domain they build their nests 

 and rear their young; nor do they depart until they 

 feel the migratory instinct strong within them. 

 White-throats come there, and warblers of every 

 kind. But the most plentiful of all are the wood- 

 wrens the wood-warblers. They come to us at the 

 close of April or the beginning of May, the males 

 arriving a week or ten days before the females, 

 and immediately treating us to their apology of a 

 song. The long-drawn " chee-chee-chee " generally 

 comes from some tall tree, and often from the branches 

 of an oak. When the bird flies from one tree to 



