138 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



To recognise them by their several scolding or alarm 

 notes is an education apart, though many know the 

 Nightingale's croak or harsh " cur-r " and perhaps 

 the Blackcap's " tack, tack," a type of alarm-note 

 shared by the chat family with most of the warblers, 

 and also with other birds as the shrike and ring-ouzel. 

 But for the evidence of these notes, short remarks, 

 exclamations and objurgations, the summer birds might 

 be supposed to have left us, while in reality they are 

 still present in their usual haunts and, in fact, in far 

 larger numbers than was the case earlier in the season. 

 For the birds which have not brought off the last of 

 their young broods by this date are in the minority, 

 though early in the month a nest of eggs of blackbird, 

 thrush, robin, or any one of the smaller birds in fact, 

 is no rarity. These belated nests represent in some 

 cases a normal second or third brood, in others a 

 forlorn hope where earlier attempts have resulted in 

 failure. 



The nests of birds which breed upon the ground are 

 specially liable to disaster. Field-mice to a certainty, 

 and ants we strongly suspect, destroy a large number 

 of young of such low-building species as the pipit. 

 When containing young, they are, moreover, readily 

 scented by keen-nosed marauders. We have known 

 a sporting dog to " point " unfailingly nests of the 

 titlark and stonechat. Eggs of the Lapwing are not 

 only diligently collected but are apt to be trodden 



