2 4 8 



Armitt: The Birds of Rydal. 



ten days' time will be ready to sit. The cock, who rarely feeds 

 the hen, sings at this time. She comes off early and late and at 

 noon to feed, frequently calling, as if to bring him. Indeed, the 

 penetrating 'Hived' heard everywhere in the first and second 

 weeks of May, confounded with the Chaffinch's note, seems the 

 invitation of the hens to their mates. (This call is sometimes 

 heard from the first arriving males while in ambush, and from 

 the last wary travellers, who seem to be alone. In a softer tone, 

 and followed by a Robin-like ' Tit-tit-tit-tit, ' it is the well-known 

 alarm signal of the nesting time.) The nesting operations 

 occupy about 28 days, 14 for the sitting and 14 for the feeding- 

 stage in the nest. The parents are highly nervous, and in quiet 

 places often call the passer's attention by their cries of alarm. 

 But in frequented places feeding is conducted with the utmost 

 skill and secrecy, and it is the bird's caution as well as its speed 

 of flight that enables its brilliance to pass unnoticed and its 

 broods to emerge safely upon roads, like the Rydal one, noisy 

 with traffic. In a nest close to the house, which was placed in 

 a shadowy stable-side abutting the highway, I watched the 

 procedure of food-getting. In order to reach the river-bank, 

 where much of the ground food for the nestlings was collected, 

 the birds kept first along the trees of the road bank, then they 

 crossed the road to a garden hedge, which runs at right angles, 

 and along this they sped swiftly to the river, practically unseen. 

 Flies were collected nearer the nest and bits of g'ravel carried 

 in. The blue eggs frequently number seven. The young often fly 

 (possibly owing to the hen sitting before all her eggs are laid) in 

 two instalments, and usually in the middle of June. The 24th 

 is a late date; one noted 15th July 1899, for the flight of the 

 two last nestlings, must have been a second venture after 

 accident to first. The young are fed for certainly ten days after 

 flight, and though piloted to a safe distance from the nest at 

 once, they appear to return to its neighbourhood each night to 

 roost for some weeks longer, as the notes of the parents attest. 

 (The Redstart is sadly put out if one halts by his usual roosting 

 station at dusk.) From mid June to mid July the young families 

 remain, gathering' strength. Then they leave, and Redstarts 

 are rare by the end of the month. Odd birds, possibly passing 

 travellers, are occasionally seen or the call-note heard at the end 

 of August. Last heard, 8th September 1894. 



Wheatear. Saxicola cenanthe (L. ). Summer visitant. 

 Nests in a few places only, on high and wild ground in Rydal 

 Head and on Loughrigg. I have known it once to appear on 



Naturalist, 



