Birds. 721 



ouv neighbourhood. Assisted with Bewick's unrivalled wood-cuts, Yarrell's accurate 

 descriptions and a good pocket telescope, I soon made the acquaintance of my cheerful 

 associates. The record of facts in 'The Zoologist,' more especially Henry Double- 

 day's dates of arrivals for twelve years at Epping (Zool. 12), I have found invaluable: 

 and as all careful out-door observations will increase the materials for the history of 

 our birds, I send you the result of my notes this spring. March was cold and foggy ; 

 and although I kept a sharp look out, I could not get sight of a single wheatear. The 

 chiffchafF was the first of the absentees whose return I noticed on the 3rd of April : 

 his peculiar and distinct note loudly proclaimed the advent of spring, and readily told 

 me of his whereabout. On the morning of the 9th of April the merry blackcap an- 

 nounced his arrival. His light-hearted welcome greeted me as I mounted for my 

 morning's ride. Perched on the highest twig of a lofty lime, he sang away cheerily 

 and lustily, that his loving mate might not miss him on her passage. Several succes- 

 sive mornings I saw him singing from the top of the same tree. It is delightful to 

 listen to his varied happy song ; he deservedly ranks among our best singers. The 

 early part of April was bleak and cheerless : but on the evening of the 15th the wind 

 changed, and we had a soft steady breeze from the south-west. I felt confident the 

 morrow would bring with it some fresh arrivals. I was not disappointed. As I cross- 

 ed Woolwich-common under the opening eyelids of the morn of the 16th, I met a pair 

 of swallows steering due west, doubtless making the best of their way for the more ge- 

 nial west of England. Their first appearance was noted the same day at Eltham. As 

 I turned off Woolwich-common into the brushwood that covers the western face of 

 Shooter's Hill, the jocund spring burst on me with all its charms. The woods rang 

 again with the incessant song of the little willow-wrens, given in all the height of ex- 

 citement, and singing against each other by scores. I could not but contrast the scene 

 and sounds with those of the previous morning, when, save the chirp of the stonechat, 

 and the titty-tit of the dunnock, all was sober and quiet. Now all was life, love and 

 song. For three weeks, morning and evening, I never passed along the Dover road, 

 without observing a willow-wren singing its utmost on the tip top of the same Lom- 

 bardy poplar. The glorious nightingales revisited their father-land the same night of 

 the 15th, but I did not hear them till the 18th, when I purposely betook myself to their 

 shady haunts. On the morning of the 17th I fell in with the lesser whitethroat, and 

 narrowly watched it with my glass for half an hour, as it kept creeping through the 

 intricacies of a thick thorn hedge. It is a neat, modestly attired bird, and is the clear- 

 est, most liquid whistler we have. I also observed the tree pipit this morning ; it was 

 amusing to behold him repeatedly spring up towards the sky, spread all his sail, poise 

 himself in the air, and descend in a half turn to the same branch whence he started. 

 For hours and hours during the spring of 1843, I listened with mournful pleasure to 

 the plaintive and melodious strains of a beautiful whinchat. It had many a time 

 soothed my sorrowful heart, and for some days I had been anxiously and constantly 

 watching and hoping for the return of my feathered friend. My heart leaped with joy 

 when I again heard the well-known voice of my pretty whinchat on the morning of the 

 18th. I soon spied my old favorite ; for even among birds the course of true love runs 

 not always smooth, No sooner had a sturdy stonechat, located in the same whins, dis- 

 covered my whinchat, than, thinking the new-comer's company much too near to be 

 pleasant, he flew at him like a fury, and would not let my little dear have a moment's 

 peace, nor allow him to settle down comfortably, until in a few days the arrival of the 

 whinchat's lawful partner appeared to satisfy him that his cousin really meant no mis- 



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