BIRD-LIFE IN APRIL 221 



wings and laughing Woodpecker, the speckled- 

 breasted Fieldfares and rosy-red Bullfinch, the 

 sooty Blackbird and shrill-voiced Meadow Pipit 

 all call for attention during gusty March, and 

 towards the end of the month the enthusiastic 

 bird lover listens and looks at every likely spot 

 for the first Summer migrant. 



VII. BIRD-LIFE IN APRIL 



A wet, dismal morning; " the season " about 

 three weeks late; Nature all around still wearing 

 her Winter apparel, and the Nightingale singing 

 joyously to me in the old-loved spot once more! 

 It is April 14, and the far-famed minstrel is 

 four days earlier than last year — indeed, many 

 Summer migrants have been recorded which are 

 much earlier in their arrival than during the last 

 year or two. To me this seems exceptionally 

 strange; here we have an extremely late season, 

 at the time of writing there is hardly a leaf on 

 any tree save for the Elder and the Wild Cherry, 

 and yet the Cuckoo, the Nightingale, the Tree 

 Pipit, the Chiff Chaff, the Wheatear, the Wryneck, 

 the Willow Warbler, and the Wood Warbler have 

 all been heard or seen by me personally by the 

 14th of the month, with the exception of the 

 Cuckoo and the Wryneck, and these have also 

 been authentically recorded in the district! 



