Redwings. 267 



Surrey. The white bloom of the blackthorn seems 

 to show there a full fortnight earlier than it does 

 on the same line of latitude not man}- miles farther 

 west. The almond trees exhibit their lovely pink 

 blossom ; the pears bloom, and presently' the haw- 

 thorn comes out into full leaf, when a degree of 

 longitude to the west the hedges are bare and only 

 just showing a bud. Various causes probably con- 

 tribute to this — difference of elevation, diflerence 

 of soil, and so forth. Now the spring visitors — as 

 the cuckoo, the swallow, and wryneck — appear in 

 Surre}- considerably sooner than they do farther west. 

 The cuckoo is sometimes a full week earlier. It 

 would seem natural to suppose that the more forward 

 state of vegetation in that county has something to 

 do with the earlier appearance of the bird. But I 

 should hesitate to attribute it entirely to that cause, 

 for it sometimes happens that birds act in direct 

 opposition to what we should consider the most 

 eligible course. 



For instance, the redwing is one of our most prom- 

 inent winter visitors. Flocks of redwings and field- 

 fares are commonly seen during the end of the season. 

 They come as winter approaches, they leave as it be- 

 gins to grow warm. In every sense the}' are birds 

 of passage : any ploughboy will tell 3'ou so. (By- 

 the-by, the ploughboy s call the fieldfares ' velts.' Is 

 not 'velt' a Northern word for field?) But one 

 spring — it was rapidly verging on summer — I was 

 struck daj' after day by hearing a loud, sweet but 

 unfamiliar note in a certain field. Fancying that 

 most bird notes were known to me, this new song 

 naturally arrested m}' attention. In a little while 



