In Farm and Garden. 1 73 



1 T~~ 



remains mute, resuming its song the following 

 February. It is interesting to remark that the Black- 

 bird in both northern and southern shires does not 

 regain its song after the moult until the following 

 February, and even then, in both latitudes, it is by 

 no means a regular or a constant singer before March. 

 Indeed the Song Thrush is to a very great extent 

 migratory in the northern shires, its place being 

 partially taken by the Redwing. In South York- 

 shire, as I remarked twenty years ago, the birds 

 are almost all gone early in November. They re- 

 turn, sometimes in companies, by the end of January 

 or the beginning of February. There is also a very 

 marked decrease in the number of Blackbirds in the 

 late autumn, the birds reappearing early in February. 

 Possibly some of the Song Thrushes migrate into 

 the south-western counties, and to this fact is due 

 the exceptional abundance of this species in Devon- 

 shire during winter. 



Leaving the hedgerows and the trees for a time 

 we shall find the hay-meadows contain several in- 

 teresting birds. One of the most easily recognized 

 of these is the Whinchat, a bird that is somewhat 

 rare and local in the south-western counties, but 

 widely and commonly dispersed over the northern 

 shires of England; in Scotland it again becomes 

 somewhat local. We usually detect it clinging to 

 some tall dock plant, meadow-sweet, or stem of cow- 



