68 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



spring. A few Sand Martins, skimming over lake or river 

 in the closing days of the month, give rise to the "early 

 swallow " paragraphs in the newspapers. The Ring 

 Ouzel, the white-breasted " moor blackbird," some- 

 times reaches the fells thus early, and in the south of 

 England the hawk-like call of the Wryneck may be 

 heard, but the great wave of migration is still to come 

 and will spread itself over the coming six weeks. 



THE MONTH OF AWAKENING. 



The March sunshine, which sees such a stir in the bird 

 world, serves to revivify much of the small populace of 

 field and wood. True, it is an inconstant month 

 which does not know its mind, and, after harking back 

 to winter pure and simple, may end in relenting mood 

 by borrowing two or three days from April and giving 

 us a few sunlit hours with the temperature in the 

 neighbourhood of 65 . Then, indeed, there is a magic 

 awakening, not only of the furred and scaled, but of 

 insect hosts which hum and creep and fly. Our native 

 animals present few instances of hibernation in the 

 sense of a deep and unbroken winter sleep. The 

 squirrel is abroad from time to time all through the 

 winter, and often in severe weather. But the hedge- 

 hog has certainly been in retirement, and now unrolls, 

 drowsy and rather unsteady at first, to root for grubs 

 in the garden paths at dusk. A rustle in the hedge- 



