6a BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



with prospecting for nesting-sites in furze-bush or 

 blackthorn hedge. Starlings are still nocking, and, 

 though most of them will be nesting early next month, 

 a limited number seem to shelve matrimonial duties, 

 for they may be seen in small flocks all through April 

 and May. In fact, the breaking up of the winter 

 associations of small birds is by no means completed 

 when March goes out. 



Free to roam at will through the winter, many birds 

 now seek their special nesting haunts. The Jackdaws 

 are again noisy round the crumbling ruins of the 

 abbey or the clefts and crevices of the limestone 

 crag. The Kingfisher leaves the marsh ditches, and 

 is seen again on the brook in the neighbourhood of the 

 steep bank in which it excavates its burrow. Moun- 

 tain and moor, which a month ago were deserted but 

 for the noisy crowings and restless flights of the Red 

 Grouse, again have their summer tenants. The 

 Curlew whistles once more over the barren uplands 

 and the Golden Plover's plaintive call comes from the 

 dreary bog-lands. The Grey Wagtail seeks the merry 

 north-country "beck" or Welsh trout-stream, to 

 nest behind a tuft of fern on the moist ledges, having 

 for neighbour the Dipper or Water Ouzel, whose 

 nursery, a big flattened, dome-shaped structure of 

 moss, lined with oak-leaves, is placed almost in the 

 spray of the fall. On the coast Cormorants seek the 

 pinnacled "stack," which for generations they have 



