298 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



yearly nest. Many young birds are now abroad, 

 Blackbirds, Thrushes, Robins, Wrens, Hedge Spar- 

 rows, Larks, Tits, and Finches. Now, too, may the 

 note of the Stock Dove be particularly remarked 

 round the cliffs, and the first broods of young Ring 

 Doves are out upon the wing. Birds are also 

 busy along the shore. Ringed Plovers are breed- 

 ing, and the Herring Gulls are nesting on the 

 cliffs ; so, too, are the Cormorants and Shags, and 

 the Stormy petrel has once more returned to its 

 nesting place. Jackdaws, Carrion Crows, and Jays 

 are deep in family cares ; young Rooks and 

 Starlings are out on the trees and about the 

 pastures with their parents. June marks a decline 

 in avine melody ; there are still many individual 

 singers, but the concert is not so general, and the 

 voices of most of our early birds are waning. The 

 summer migrants are still breeding, some, such as 

 the Goatsucker, the Brown Flycatcher, and the 

 Turtle Dove, having eggs. Right through the 

 month most birds continue in more or less fitful 

 voice, but with the advent of July a strange 

 silence begins to steal over the woods and groves. 

 Here and there a few belated birds are still 

 breeding; here and there nests of the earlier birds 



