I06 A MIDLAND TILLAGE : RAILWAY AND WOODLAND. 



Just as the population of the open country begins to decrease 

 in numbers in early spring, so it increases rapidly in the 

 first weeks of summer. The young broods that have spent 

 their infancy in or near the village now seek more extended 

 space and richer supplies of food, and when the hay is cut, 

 they may be found swarming in all adjacent hedges and on 

 the prostrate swathes, while the gardens are comparatively 

 empty. But before July is over an attentive watcher will 

 find that his garden is visited by birds which were not born 

 and bred there : while the residents are away in the fields, 

 the migrants begin to be attracted to the gardens by the 

 ripening fruits of all kinds. Whitethroats, willow-warblers, 

 chifi-chaffs, haunt the kitchen-garden for a while, then leave 

 it on their departure for the coast and their journey southwards. 

 After this last little migration, the villages and gardens remain 

 almost deserted except by the blackbirds and thrushes, the 

 robins and the wrens, until the winter drives the wilder birds 

 to seek the neighbourhood of man once more. Even then, 

 unless the garden be well-timberpd, they will be limited to a 

 very few species, except in the hardest weather; and it is 

 remarkable how little variety will be found among our winter 

 pensioners — those recipients of out-door relief, who spoil their 

 digestions by becoming greedy over a food which is not natural 

 to them. 



This rough attempt to sketch the local migrations of birds 

 must be understood as applying to my own village only, and 

 to gardens which are not surrounded with extensive parks. 



