192 The Secret Flight 



yellow horned poppy is passing over, and the sea 

 lavender spreads its misty lilac on the flats. This 

 migration of our native waders lasts from July 

 till late in September, though mid-August sees 

 its height. Early in spring, while snow-storms 

 still whiten the moors, the curlews settle in their 

 nesting-quarters among the bent grass or heather, 

 and halloo with their wild and varied spring cries 

 round the shoulders of the hills and high above the 

 valleys. By mid-July their young are usually 

 fledged ; and soon afterwards old and young begin 

 to journey to the sea, where a sprinkling of immature 

 and unmated birds has remained all through the 

 summer. With them come the little dunlins, from 

 their nesting-places on the same moorland hills or 

 from sea marshes further to the north. Green 

 plovers are as abundant by the estuaries in later 

 summer as in inland fields ; and oyster-catchers and 

 golden plovers and redshanks form less numerous 

 contingents. By September a great throng of 

 waders from the far north begins to pass through 

 England, as birds of autumn passage, and mingles 

 with the flocks on the shore. But in early August 

 the foreign army has hardly begun to land, and the 

 vast majority of the flocks of waders seen by salt 

 water are British bred. 



The movements of these flocks of waders add life 

 to the wide harbours and tidal rivers, where they 

 chiefly gather. Even in July the number of birds 

 begins to increase, after the comparative depopula- 

 tion of the nesting season. Gulls drift back to their 

 winter haunts, diversifying the patchy plumage of 



