38 The Coming of the Birds 



dows, the throng of summer migrants is changing 

 the aspect of bird-life through the whole of the land. 

 Chiffchaffs grow daily more numerous ; and now 

 they no longer search silently for insects among the 

 whipping twigs of the lower boughs, but ascend and 

 sing in the tops. One of the surest places to find 

 chiffchaffs singing is where some sheltered slope 

 of larches breaks green in the sunshine and mild 

 wind ; and here in the second week of April they 

 are joined by their near relatives the willow- wrens. 

 Much as swallows were half believed even by 

 Gilbert White to awake in spring from hibernation 

 at the bottom of ponds and streams, it might be 

 thought that these delicate warblers lay hid all the 

 winter among the thorns and dry leaves beneath the 

 larches, and came forth when the boughs grew green 

 in the sun. Swallows on the pools and willow- 

 wrens and chiffchaffs in the larches seem as native 

 to the life of the spot on warm spring days as the 

 young shoots on the bank or boughs ; but the birds 

 in both cases are drawn by the emerging insects. 

 Where the fragrance of the budding larches streams 

 in the April sunshine, specks can be seen floating 

 against the sky and creeping on the tufted needles. 

 These are minute flies hatched by the warmth of 

 spring. The main body of the chiffchaffs and 

 willow-wrens arrives when their food is ready for 

 them, and the verdure to harbour it is budding ; 

 and the same correspondence can be marked all 

 through the migration season, except in the most 

 backward or irregular springs. 

 Whitethroats and sedge-warblers begin to arrive 



