78 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



long absent friends who fill once more the accustomed 

 niche after wintering in Egypt or on the Riviera. 



But, before we welcome the coming, let us speed 

 the parting guests, to wit, the feathered hosts which 

 made a descent last autumn upon our English woods 

 and waters to escape the rigours of a northern winter, 

 and whose instinct now draws them homeward towards 

 Highland loch or Norwegian field. In April the 

 number of wild-fowl upon lake, river and estuary 

 grows daily less. The wild geese, the majority of our 

 winter ducks, such as the Pintail, Wigeon, Pochard and 

 Scoter, Mergansers and Divers, all seek their northern 

 breeding haunts, though some will still be with us 

 until the first or second week of May. The Woodcock 

 is no longer to be flushed from the soft ground under the 

 hollies by the spring-head, where his russet plumage 

 harmonises so well with the carpet of dead leaves. 

 The Jack Snipe has left the patch of swamp where any 

 day since last October we have been able to find him 

 amongst the tufts of tawny sedge. The little green 

 Siskins no longer hang from the twigs of birch and 

 alder as they extract the seed. Under the beeches we 

 look in vain for the Bramblings which, with their near 

 relatives, the chaffinches, have pecked all through the 

 winter at the fallen " mast." With musical call-note 

 and the glint of sunshine on white wings, the Snow 

 Buntings leave our northern coasts. Who knows to 

 what far arctic solitude their summer wanderings may 



