CHAPTER IV 



BIRDS AND THEIR VOYAGES 



THE song thrush, as we have seen, belongs to our 

 whole woodland year. Save for those birdless weeks 

 of late summer which seem to end a natural year 

 more than December ever ends it, to be a kind of 

 dead point between seasons the song thrush is con- 

 nected in our thoughts hardly more with one month 

 than another. The thrush is perennial in England. 

 Many other birds we connect with certain seasons 

 or phases of the English year. The redbreast by 

 all tradition is a true autumn bird, but I recognise 

 that in many places the starling and its babble 

 are a more distinctive feature of delicate September 

 mornings with their mild sunshine than the redbreast. 

 The redbreast seems most in its element a little 

 later when leaves are falling fast. I often think 

 of starlings singing for the pleasure of song without 

 other motive. Surely they do. Listen now to the 

 starlings on the roof, or in the shrubbery, when 

 you wake or are up and preparing for the day's 

 profit and pleasure you can scarcely doubt it. 

 These homestead birds will often sing on through 

 much of the day, certainly far into the September 



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