MARCH 67 



fresh-turned furrows, passing singly and in parties all 

 through the first half of the month. To those who 

 know the Meadow Pipit, its return to the water-meads 

 in straggling flocks is as familiar a feature of the month 

 as the re-appearance of the wagtails. The Linnets 

 twittering and singing in the ash, the black-capped 

 Stonechats on the furze, all, or a large proportion of 

 them, were absent while frost and snow held sway, 

 though their quest of warmth and sunshine may only 

 have carried them to the neighbourhood of the south 

 coast. Few have any idea of the extent to which 

 these local movements of birds occur within the 

 United Kingdom. 



It is not until near the close of the month that we 

 look for the return of the first of the summer migrants, 

 or birds of passage, whose annual wanderings have a 

 far wider range. The first to be reported, from 

 warrens, stony fallows, or the sand-dunes of the coast, 

 is almost invariably the grey-backed Wheatear, which 

 by the end of the month flicks its white tail and utters 

 its sharp " chack, chack," in many a rocky mountain 

 solitude. A few days later the Chiff chaff, a slim little 

 warbler, olive-green above and lighter below, may be 

 seen darting into the air for insects from the twigs 

 of a yellow-catkined willow or repeating its monotonous 

 distich amongst the tender green of budding larches. 

 Its arrival puts the seal to the promise of March, for the 

 chiffchaff , and not the cuckoo, is the true harbinger of 



