APRIL. 



DISCOURAGED BIRDS. 



April 3. Though April came in not unspringlike 

 weather, chilly winds held back the bursting buds 

 and cooled the ardour of those birds which had only 

 half made up their minds to begin housekeeping. 

 Our swans, for instance, with the instinct, perhaps, of 

 ages of Arctic experience rendering them especially 

 sensitive to discouraging weather, gave up the idea 

 promptly. A couple of weeks before they had been 

 full of pomp and ceremony as they marched, or, rather, 

 waddled, around, one behind the other, inspecting all 

 the impossible nesting sites about the place. One 

 morning they even went so far as to pull a heap of 

 straw about, emerging from their labours with undig- 

 nified wisps and strands draped about their necks 

 and wings. But when the wind settled in the north- 

 west they returned at once to the pond and the 

 pasture, behaving as though the idea of such a thing 

 as nesting had never entered their minds. 



A CHECKED MIGRATION. 



The same chilly north-west winds checked the 

 incoming stream of migrants. Chiff-chaffs, blackcaps, 

 wheatears, willow wrens, sand-martins, swallows, and 

 sand-pipers had all been seen more than a fortnight 



