THE CHITF-CHAFF. 57 



build their houses and rear their young in our 

 woods, will all have reached us by the middle of 

 May, and during that and the two following months 

 all the minstrels of wood and glen, of mountain 

 and river-side, — all may be heard and seen. It is 

 the season of incubation, the period when the 

 songs are sweetest ; and when this is over many 

 migratory birds will leave, and those which remain 

 will be mostly silent, till the robin and wren begin 

 their autumnal songs among the yellow leaves. 

 It is not till late in May, that the soft and plain- 

 tive cooing of the turtle-dove announces its arrival ; 

 and when its silver Tv^ngs flit along througli the 

 trees, we may liear, too, the note of tlie fly-catcher, 

 which is one of our latest visitors. Long since, 

 before the trees had put forth a spray of leaves to 

 meet the diilling winds of March, and when the 

 sloe had a white flower here and there upon its 

 branches, and the willow-tree bore already its 

 balls of gold, the chifl'-chaff' had come to join its 

 notes with those of our thrush and blackbird, 

 when a bright day invited them to song. Then 

 the whinchat was soon heard as its abrupt notes 

 issued from the furze-clad common. Early in 

 April came the redstart, and then followed 



