THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



253 



to' some of the philosophic poet Words- 

 worth's finest poems. The ruins are the 

 habitation of immense numbers of swifts, 

 which here breed in safety, occupying every 

 available crevice about the upper part of 

 the old ruins. Not one, however, had come 

 at the above date, but later in the summer 

 I have often being interested in watching 

 their movements as they dash and wheel 

 about in the air with astonishing velocity. 

 As soon as I had entered the woods, which 

 surround the tower, I heard the garden 

 warbler for the first time this year, and 

 several wood warblers, of which I had heard 

 only once before this year, that being the 

 previous year in Cottingley wood. This spe- 

 cies seems somewhat local, preferring with us 

 the more exposed parts of the woods, particu- 

 larly where the beach abounds. But I heard 

 another species which to me is more interest- 

 ing than any other bird I have yet heard in 

 Wharfdale, I mean the pied fly-catcher ; 

 whose unassuming appearance, chaste plum- 

 age, and above all its confiding dispositon, 

 makes it a great favourite with me, and its 

 song to my mind being always invested with 

 charm, throwing a glamour of interest over 

 every physical object, as if in fact — 

 " All the soands of Nature borrowed sweetness, 

 From the masic of its singing." 

 After passing through the woods about 

 Burden Tower, on my way to Burden Moor, 

 I was struck with the regularity with which 

 some of our spring migrants return annually 

 to nest in the same locality, particularly 

 Ray's wagtail, redstart, wheatear, and swal- 

 low, the last species has already begun to 

 build. On Burden Moor I heard the grass- 

 hopper warbler, and apparently tiiere were 

 only one pair of curlews, where there were 

 a few years since four or five pairs breeding. 

 The only insects observed were one TJiccla 

 ruhi, a species which I had never taken 

 before ; one iS. carpini ; F. atoiiuiaria was 

 abundant ; Bomhus tcrrcstriii was very com- 

 mon, feeding upon bilberry bloom, and was 

 the only hyuicnoptcrous insect I saw at this 



flower. About the marshy places the snipe 

 breeds not uncommonly, while the golden 

 plover is scarcer than it was a few years 

 since, at least about the particular part of 

 the moor I visited this year. I was watch- 

 ing a pair of plovers for the purpose of trying 

 to find their nest — the weather up to mid- 

 day had been delightfully fine — when the 

 clouds began to gather and assume a very 

 menacing aspect, but with a rising barometer 

 I still hoped would " blow over." It, how- 

 ever, began to rain, at first gently, which I 

 disregarded in my ardour to find their nest, 

 but before long a thunder-storm broke out 

 and the rain came down in torrents. I set 

 off running for shelter to a barn about half- 

 a-mile away, but what with the rain, and 

 the nature of the ground, it being in some 

 places very steep, and up to my knees in 

 heather, and in some parts considerable 

 higher, I found it a very herculean task. 

 When I got inside the barn I found myself 

 thoroughly drenched, and turning round 

 saw, written in large characters, a piece of 

 of doggrel I thought very appropriate to my 

 condition. It ran thus — 



" Peep, fool peep, look at thy brother, 

 As one fool looks at another." 

 The weather, however, soon cleared up and 

 I made my way to a gamekeeper's house, 

 which I arrived after a few minutes walk, 

 a companion here joined me, and we took, in 

 a larch plantation, behind the house, a ring- 

 dove's nest with two eggs, and was built in 

 a magpie's nest, which had been forsaken 

 only about a fortnight. In these plantations 

 the gold-crest breeds plentifully, my brother 

 being here the day previously, told me he 

 saw or heard about a dozen pairs. Crossing 

 the highway, after leaving this plantation, 

 we entered another wood, called " Hag 

 Wood," in some parts nearly inpenetrable 

 from a thick undergrowth of hazel and 

 honeysuckle, a retreat very suitable to the 

 warblers. Blackcaps here were very com- 

 mon, pouring forth their delightfully wild 

 I notes, but which are performed in a somewhat 



