. Birds through the year . m these stony and lichen-covered summits rightdown to the tree-line in the dingles, and away to the enclosedfields lower still, moors where preservation is not too strictmaintain a wonderfully fine and varied list of species, thoughthe total numbers are not very large. Wide, windy wastes ofgrass and heather offer a too limited food-supply to attract a 6o SPRING very large number of birds. Almost all birds—even some ofthe hawks and falcons—depend more or less on a free supplyof insect life in the nesting season; and at that time there isa far scantier choice of winged
. Birds through the year . m these stony and lichen-covered summits rightdown to the tree-line in the dingles, and away to the enclosedfields lower still, moors where preservation is not too strictmaintain a wonderfully fine and varied list of species, thoughthe total numbers are not very large. Wide, windy wastes ofgrass and heather offer a too limited food-supply to attract a 6o SPRING very large number of birds. Almost all birds—even some ofthe hawks and falcons—depend more or less on a free supplyof insect life in the nesting season; and at that time there isa far scantier choice of winged and creeping insects on theopen moors than in the lower woods and the enclosedvalleys. Insects become more abundant on the moors inAugust; but by that time the birds have done nesting, andmany of them have already left the hills. This comparativescarcity of insect life is one reason why many of the mostconspicuous moorland species are birds of prey, which feedtheir young on other birds or young animals, and not on the. WHITETHROAT insects or creeping things which fatten most other another cause of the peculiar interest of the modern birdlife of the moors is the scarcity of the larger and wilderspecies in cultivated and thickly peopled lowlands. Ravens,buzzards and other birds of prey which once nested freely inwoods and groves have now been banished to the sanctuaryof the rocks, either on the moorlands and mountains or onthe shore; and even such peaceable birds as peewits andwheatears find a more congenial haunt on the untilled slopesof the moors than on commons or rough fields in theplains. Fascinating as it is to watch the bird life of the lowervalleys in the May days when the cuckoo is calling every- MOORLAND BIRDS 61 where, and the whitethroats are busy in the thorns androadside nettles, there is a sense of freedom and a kind ofnatural adventure about a moorland expedition which makesit even more attractive. The best way to approach the birdsof the moor i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirdspi, bookyear1922
