218 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



as they chase one another above the fresh-turned 

 furrows, till we momentarily expect them to break 

 into song. Belated visitors to the coast may enjoy 

 days such as the August crowd sighed for in vain, 

 halcyon days of kindly skies and placid sea, when 

 knots of gulls scream above the shoals of fry, or float 

 lazily up the estuary with the tide. Over field and 

 woodland the glamour of departed glories is cast once 

 more, till, with oncoming dusk, the partridges crow 

 from the stubbles, and the pheasants, with tumult of 

 wings and voices, fly up into the oaks to roost. As 

 we stand by the lake-side, the last gleam of daylight 

 is reflected from the silky breasts and necks of a pair 

 of crested-grebes, while, nearer the margin, many a 

 waterhen splashes a silvery track amongst the 

 darkening shadows. Magpies noisily go to roost in 

 the plantation, and in the shrubbery the blackbird 

 " chink, chink "s his vesper hymn. A familiar sight 

 in many parts of the country is that of a vast flock of 

 starlings, manoeuvring, like a drifting cloud of smoke, 

 as they seek some well-known resort to roost in company. 

 With what exactitude the flock wheels as one bird, 

 changing in a moment from closed formation to 

 extended front, and finally dropping like a stone to 

 the plantation or reed-bed which is their nightly haunt. 

 Not less wonderful is the well-drilled precision with 

 which the lapwings carry out their evolutions in lines 

 and squadrons, and, familiar as it is, the spiral circling 



