86 MARCH 



the bird dead by the agency of his bow and arrow. The 

 ring immensely puzzled the hunter ; and if the news of 

 it had not reached the missionary s ears it might perhaps 

 have been used to decorate the nose of the native s wife. 

 The cuckoo is now famous, for it is the first English- 

 African cuckoo of which there is authentic record. 



Rings have been bringing many messages during this 

 winter, a number of ringed starlings and some other 

 species have been found on English farms. They have 

 come from Finland, from Germany and several places in 

 Scandinavia. We have learnt more perhaps during the 

 last two years than ever before ; and discovery enlarges 

 the wonder of these seasonal journeys. &quot; True and 

 tender is the North &quot; quite literally ; for all birds, with 

 unimportant exceptions, choose the most northern limit 

 of their journey for their nesting home and singing home. 

 When we hear one March day the delicious note of the 

 ouzel, the ripple of the wheatear, the tremulous cadence 

 of the willow wren, the cicala-like chirp of the chiff-chaff, 

 we know that they are all approaching their nesting 

 haunts. There will soon be a group of green eggs in a 

 scoop on the chalk down, or a half score white and 

 speckled under an ingenious dome in the lowest possible 

 bush by the edge of the wood. 



How neatly all the pairs distribute themselves about 

 the country. Some sorts, of course, are fastidious. The 

 ouzels yearn for the West and North ; and because they 

 are rare in the East, they have lost their proper and de 

 served honour of being, on occasion, the first arrival 

 from overseas. Ouzel, wheatear, and those indistin 

 guishable warblers except in song the chiff-chaff and 

 willow warbler and sand martin, are the chief March 

 arrivals, the makers of the month s excitement. In spite 

 of yearly alarms and excursions, the March cuckoo is not 



