. Birds through the year . ustomed haunts, if we keep a careful daily warm day inthe garden we noticethat the spotted fly-catcher is no longerperched in its favour-ite position on thetennis - post or thecorner of the porch ;and in the eveningtwilight we miss thenightjar flitting noise-lessly down the clearing in the copse. Both these birds arelate-comers, and obey the same general rule as the swift inbeing quick to go. For them too, with their need for anabundant insect diet, the English climate sets an early termof departure. But still we can hardly feel that the summerbirds are re
. Birds through the year . ustomed haunts, if we keep a careful daily warm day inthe garden we noticethat the spotted fly-catcher is no longerperched in its favour-ite position on thetennis - post or thecorner of the porch ;and in the eveningtwilight we miss thenightjar flitting noise-lessly down the clearing in the copse. Both these birds arelate-comers, and obey the same general rule as the swift inbeing quick to go. For them too, with their need for anabundant insect diet, the English climate sets an early termof departure. But still we can hardly feel that the summerbirds are really leaving us, so long as the days are full ofsunshine, and the empty places are so few as compared withany week in the quiet time since June. By October there is no mistaking that the southwardmigration is in full swing. It is most visible in the case ofthe swallows and their kindred, which migrate by day. Theconcourses of swallows and martins on roofs and telegraphwires are not only larger than when they first began in. NIGHTJAR 27o AUTUMN AND WINTER September, but much more restless and shifting. If wekeep close watch, we shall find that sooner or later, whensome party rises and circles in the air, it does not come backto the perch as it did after its former sallies, but vanishes inthe southern sky. An hour or two later, the church spire orbarn roof may be once more thick with swallows or martins;but they are a new contingent. The same quiet coming andgoing of smaller parties may be seen on an October day oversheltered pools and rivers, or warm meadows in the lee of awood. The swallows sweep so regularly over the water orpast the boughs that they look like the regular summerresidents; yet, ten minutes later, they may be gone, leavingthe surface of the pool spread empty between its orangesedges. This quiet but constant stream of travel is evenmore impressive than the great simultaneous movements ofthe larger flocks. It suggests far more vividly the elusivesecrecy of the mov
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirdspi, bookyear1922
