266 Influence of Harvest-time. 



six, or more, calling to each other in their happy 

 confidential way. On that clay the trees and hedges 

 seemed to become quite populous again with finches. 

 The sparrows, too, were busy in the roads once 

 more. For a week previously every now and then 

 a single lark might be heard singing for a few min- 

 utes : they had been silent before. On the 28th 

 half-a-dozen could be heard singing at once, and 

 now and then a couple might be seen chasing each- 

 other as if full of gaiety. It was indeed almost like 

 a second spring : at the same time a few buttercups 

 bloomed, to add to the illusion. 



This migration of the finches from the hedgerows 

 out into the fields, and their coming back, is very 

 striking. It may possibly be connected with the 

 phenomenon of ' packing ; ' for they seem to go away 

 b}' twos and threes, to disappear graduall}^ but to 

 return almost all at once, and in parties or flocks. 

 The number in the flocks varies a great deal : it is 

 a common opinion that it depends on the weather, 

 and that in hard winters, when the cold is severe 

 and prolonged, the flocks are much larger. Wood- 

 pigeons are seldom, it is said, seen in gi-eat flocks 

 till the winter is advanced. 



Has the date of the harvest an}' influence upon the 

 migration of birds? The harvest in some counties 

 is, of course, much earUer than in others — ^a fact of 

 which the itinerant laborer takes advantage, follow- 

 ing the wave of ripening grass and corn. By the 

 time they have mown the grass or reaped the wheat, 

 as the case may be, in one county, the crops are ripe 

 in another, to which they then wend their way. 



One of the very earliest counties, perhaps, is 



