124 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



not to be found by watching its owners, which, when 

 they visit their treasure, creep mouse-like through 

 the thicket. 



The summer migrants which were the latest to 

 arrive are scarcely to be found nesting before the first 

 week in June. The Turtle Dove's nest of light, wiry 

 twigs may be found in woods and thickets. For that 

 of the Red-backed Shrike one must search a high, 

 overgrown hedge-row, and so shy are the butcher-birds 

 that often the first indication of their presence is the 

 discovery of their rather bulky nest, with the eggs 

 always of one of two types, either ash-grey or salmon- 

 coloured. As we search, a Cuckoo alights on the 

 fence and calls time after time, his head held low, his 

 tail somewhat higher and partly spread. But by the 

 end of the month most cuckoos have become silent. 

 The Rooks, nesting duties completely over, have 

 deserted the rookery. The Nightingale's croak or 

 scolding " cur-r " shows that the olive-brown eggs 

 are hatched in the nest down amongst the dead oak- 

 leaves. Upon the heath or in some opening of the 

 woods one may chance upon the Nightjar, drowsily 

 brooding with half-closed eyes upon her two beautiful 

 eggs, and looking for all the world like a rough piece 

 of bark. Apart from sea-fowl, the nightjar is the only 

 one of our British birds which makes absolutely no nest. 



But is not one of the chief glories of June to be found 

 in its long lingering twilights ? When the thrushes 



