XI Departing Birds : an Epilogue 277 



threading the paths among the gorse, and would 

 suddenly appear round a corner within a few feet of 

 me, and fly almost between my legs. This reach of 

 coast, which luckily has not been consecrated as yet 

 to the overweening devotee of golf, affords excellent 

 shelter to migrating birds, and would probably be a 

 good station for an observer both in spring and 

 autumn. Wagtails, Linnets, Pipits, Stonechats, and 

 Wheatears were here that day (24th September) ; and 

 a few Skylarks, who were probably going westwards. 

 Throughout our ten days travel we had seen 

 nothing very startling in the movements of birds, 

 nor any rare species. But a student of birds can 

 find plenty to employ him in the haunts even of our 

 most familiar companions. The one remarkable fact 

 which met us at every place where we stayed — the 

 fact which would probably have impressed itself 

 most deeply on the mind of a foreign ornithologist — 

 was the crowding and singing of Eobins. Abundant 

 as they are in autumn over the whole country, in 

 the extreme south they seem to be closely packed 

 in every garden, orchard, and hedgerow. And in 

 spite of this abundance, which brought the song to 

 my ears every hour and almost every minute I was 

 out of doors, I found it impossible to weary of the 

 strain; never has it seemed to me more rich and 

 tender in tone, or more varied in execution and 

 meaning. 



