200 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



rather fanciful term of ccelebs, the bachelor, to our 

 dapper and light-hearted finch. It by no means 

 follows that all the chaffinches, yellow-hammers or 

 skylarks which we see on the fields have been reared 

 in our own particular neighbourhood, indeed they are 

 often so numerous that this cannot possibly be the 

 case. The tendency of almost all birds in seeking 

 their winter quarters is to move south, be it only by a 

 couple of degrees of latitude. One may even feel 

 a doubt whether the robin which "eyes the delver's 

 toil," ready to drop on to a worm or to sing perched 

 on the handle of his spade if he leaves his work for a 

 moment, is our own familiar robin Which nested on a 

 shelf of the garden tool-house. Some of our own 

 thrushes are still with us, piping their rather inferior 

 autumn song, but there are others which go about 

 in small parties and whose want of familiarity with 

 our shrubberies and shyness in venturing on to our 

 lawns stamp them as aliens. At times we may surprise 

 so many blackbirds in a hedge-row as to feel a moral 

 certainty that they are a migratory party. 



Meadow-pipits and pied-wagtails continue to be on 

 the move all through the month. Whether the various 

 bands of roving free-booters are merely from the 

 northern part of the kingdom or are invaders from over 

 sea is not always easy to determine, but the voracious 

 hordes of wood-pigeons, which of late years have 

 driven farmers to exasperated and organized reprisals, 



