The Secret Flight 191 



of a few families into a small flock. The peewits of 

 a single water-meadow join as a flock of perhaps a 

 couple of dozen birds ; and on lawns and in grassy 

 glades we see how two or three pairs of wood-pigeons, 

 with their smaller families two to the peewit's four 

 form neighbourly foraging parties before roving 

 afield and joining some band of strangers. The 

 young pigeons are almost as large as the old, but 

 they do not wear the white neck-patches or " ring," 

 so that they can be easily distinguished in these 

 groups. Now, too, by brooks in lowland meadows, 

 appear the brilliant grey wagtails brighter by far 

 than their name which nest by the sparkling hill 

 streams and winter by slower southern waters. 

 Even before the end of July they begin to reappear, 

 wading in the little brooks shrunk by the sun, or 

 dancing on the lip of the weirs. A few pairs nest 

 each year by plashing waters in the lowlands ; but 

 they too seem to begin wandering as soon as their 

 young are fledged, and appear as forerunners of 

 autumn before the corn is yet yellowing. 



Grey wagtails are regular rather than very 

 abundant migrants ; but a vaster migration takes 

 place in August from the hill country, when multi- 

 tudes of curlews, dunlins and other wading birds 

 leave the moorlands and troop with their young to 

 the shore. This migration is peculiarly character- 

 istic of bird-life in Britain, where both high moors 

 and sandy shore lines and estuaries are typical 

 elements in the scenery. The return of the waders 

 to the strand is a delightful feature of many low 

 coasts and oozy havens in late summer, when the 



