Bird Life in May. 



After the April days, crowded as they were with 

 incident, what shall we say of May ? Now indeed 

 spring is in its hey-day and life is at the full. The air 

 is still fresh and cool, filled with the scents of opening 

 leafage. What is there in the very air of a May 

 morning which makes all things young again, some 

 property which is lost all too soon as " the merrie 

 month " gives place to mid-summer ? At no time of 

 year is a larger variety of birds with us, for, while 

 the later comers amongst the summer migrants are 

 making their appearance, many waders and wild- 

 fowl still linger on shore and estuary before taking 

 their long flight to the north. All birds which breed 

 with us are now nesting ; almost all are in full plumage 

 and in best voice. Those which nested early are now 

 busy with a second venture, almost before the first 

 family is off their hands. There are of course 

 exceptions ; the members of the crow tribe rear but 

 a single brood, and the same is certainly the case with 

 many pairs of tits. The primary reason why nests 

 seem so much more numerous in hedge and thicket 

 than they did last month is that the summer migrants 



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