Birds by Land and Sea 



For the fieldfares were still plentiful in our district, 

 although the swallow was credibly reported to have 

 been seen a couple of miles west of us. 



Both chiff-chaff and willow-wren vanished at 

 once before the steady north winds, probably to the 

 shelter of some kindly wood, such as we, in our 

 open wind-swept plains, are unable to offer them. 



On the 23rd of April the gentle wood-wren was 

 with us again. " Tui-tui-tui ! "' he said, in that 

 sweetly familiar way of his, as I stood within three 

 yards from the hedge on which he was searching for 

 an early morning meal. There he was again, this 

 gentlest of warblers, fresh from his voyaging, tired 

 and hungry, no doubt, but dainty and confiding as 

 ever. If there is a bird one can really love for itself, 

 surely it is the little brown and white wood-wren. 

 And yet not merely brown and white. A bird of 

 the woodland, it seems to have caught in the olive 

 brown of its head and back the green reflection of 

 leafy haunts, and the light of subdued sunbeams has 

 become entangled in the yellowy white of its under 

 parts. Something, too, of the quiet spirit of the 

 woods has passed into the bird, and, like one used 

 to solitude, it appears to regard the human form as 

 strange, rather than as one to be feared. 



He, too, was only a passenger, and the next day 

 was gone in search of some more sylvan spot than 

 ours ; but there is no wood where I shall not find 

 him all the summer through a wandering song in 

 the high tree-tops ; or, better still, an anxious 



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