It is not in these older, denser hazel-
copses that the primroses and wood-anem-
the point of view. Standing on the brink
of the sun-flooded plane, and looking away
over the sea of blossom, it is the primroses
that give the dominant note of colour near
at hand. But a little way onward, their
pure yellow begins to fade away, and the
distant prospect is just one level of shining
white, broken only by a spot of violet
shadow here and there, where an oak or
beech tree stands islanding the sunny
Photo; C. IV. Colthruf.
The whole bush of Blackthorn is covered with minute white flowers, each enshrining
a spark of amber.
ones abound thus early in the season, for
all they make a pale sulphur streak on either
side of the winding way. To find prim-
roses and anemones now in all their throng-
ing beauty, one must push on to the clear-
ings the wide, bare open spaces, sheltered
yet free to the whole day's sun, and set deep
in the heart of the wood.
The thing that chiefly strikes the eye on
chancing suddenly upon one of these clear-
ings, after tramping a mile perhaps through
the sober green twilight of the woods, is
the way in which the whiteness of the
anemones swamps the rich yellow of the
primroses within a dozen yards, at most, of
waste. The anemones, though fewer in
number, lift their heads higher than the
primroses, so that if the glance rove far
afield nothing is seen but their gleaming
white stars.
In all these massed effects of blossom
the impulse of the onlooker is to be con-
tent with a wide general view. Yet half
the beauty and the wonder of these flower-
strewn clearings is lost if their detail of
growth and circumstance be disregarded.
One can lie down for hours amongst prim-
roses and anemones at this time of year,
and yet never exhaust their loveliness and
mystery.
THE PAGEANT OF NATURE
Pho'o: T. M Blackmin.
Starlings, chattering gaily, gather to pick up a meal amidst the dew-lader
grass.
Here, in the outset, is a thing that has
puzzled many. The whole wide clearing
is musical with the hum of countless bees ;
but watch as carefully as one may, a honey-
bee is never seen on a primrose. To the
human eye the primroses seem just as
alluring as the wind-flowers. But the bees
pass them severely by, and it is the white
anemones that are eternally nodding under
the weight of their caress.
In old days the primrose used to be
the classic type of simpleness among wild
flowers. Yet one cannot lie among them
for long without the truth dawning that
the common woodland primrose is a very
complex flower indeed. A handful olucked
at random, and closely examined, will
reveal a host of curious things. First it is
found that a primrose is not a primrose
in the sense that it is one kind of flower
Photo: Reginald A. Malby.
The Spring Crocus adorns many a by-path in the more cultivated
glades.
8
Photo: C. W. Colthrvp
A PRIMROSE GLADE.
To find Primroses now in all their thronging beauty, one must push on to the clearings^*
the wide, bare open spaces, sheltered, yet free to the whole day's sun, and set deep in
the heart of the wood.
2
THE PAGEANT OF NATURE
alone. The blossoms in the hand divide
themselves pretty equally into two varieties
the one with its centre closed by a little
feathery whorl of buff-hued anthers, the
other with the median tube quite open,
except that there is poised just within the
mouth of it a tiny globe of translucent
green. Obviously, one thinks, these are
male and female flowers. Yet, if each
fluffy brown moth, is hovering over one of
the primroses near at hand. Its crystal-
clear wings and general gait soon reveal it
as some sort of fly, and its enormous trunk-
like proboscis is thrust deep down into the
trumpet-bell of the flower. On an instant
it is off and away to the next kindred blos-
som, and a moment later to the next,
avoiding the white anemones in its aerial
Photo : Henry Irving.
By the green roadside verges, gold-eyed Celandine shines out at every step. Its first
leaves, which are heart-shaped, only precede the flowers by a few days.
blossom be torn apart, it will be found that
both have the two sexual traits fully de-
veloped and complete. The feather-eyed
flower has the green stamen concealed in
the tube below ; the other has also its ring
of male anthers, yet borne as a hidden and
inaccessible treasure deep in the trumpet
beneath. And while we meditate on this
strange dual inversion of parts in the prim-
rose wondering whether the flower is self-
fertilizing, seeing that its sweets are stored
far too deep to be reached by the tongue of
any ordinary insect a new sound perhaps
is heard on the gently moving air. Some-
thing, that looks at first glance like a little
path as scrupulously as the honey-bees
shunned the primroses. This queer furry-
brown atom is almost the only thing that
will be seen on the primroses now or
at any time. It is easy to understand why
the short-tongued hive-bee ignores their
sweets ; but why the butterflies, whose
tongues can fathom much deeper calyces,
should give them so wide a berth, is some-
thing of a mystery. Yet there is one butter-
fly of early spring which, by its peculiar
fondness for the primrose, goes far to re-
deem the strange neglect of its kind. One
cannot look about for long in a primrose
glade at this time without seeing a brimstone
10
% Photo: Reginald A. Malby.
Everywhere wild Daffodils spring out of the ground, blowing their yellow trumpets,
and nodding in the breeze.
*
A
Photo: Howard Benthant,
The Wood-anemones, though fewer in number, lift their heads higher than the
Primroses.
THE PAGEANT OF NATURE
Photo ; He >try Jnn'ng.
Water Crowfoot obscures the dark waters of many a pond by its mass of flower
set in a tangle of luscious green.
butterfly, like a flying primrose of larger size, among them with closed wings, when it is
passing from flower to flower, or settling lost at once in the general sulphur hue.
Photo : Henry Irving.
Marsh-marigolds throng -the river's bank, tracing the windings of the distant streams.
12
THE AWAKENING OF SPRING
To the river, last of all, on this never-to-
be-forgotten day of spring's real awaken-
ing the old, reed-fringed river, where the
willows crowd down to the water's edge,
dipping their tresses in the gentle flow.
They are all golden too, now, these river-
side willows, from their lowest drooping
branches to the topmost twigs that make an
arabesque of gold against the azure of the
vernal sky. It is fulfilment, where, before
the rough north-east wind drove all colour
from earth and heaven, there was but a
stealthy promise of gold here and there in
the maze of swelling buds.
Standing on the ancient foot-bridge,
whose crazy timbers have spanned the water
so insecurely yet for so long, one looks
down the shining winding way, and scarce
knows whether to be moved the more by
wonder than by thankfulness at all the
squandered loveliness of the scene. The
waters dream by under the feet, every now
and then an eddy filling up with a note like
a silver bell. The happy birds load the
sunshine with music. A kingfisher lances
by, drawing a streak of glittering blue from
bank to bank. That is a moorhen calling
to his mate, deep hidden in the jungle of
whispering reeds. Marsh-marigolds throng
the river's bank ; they are golden too, yet
theirs is but a miserly sprinkling compared
with the royal largesse of the willows.
Though there are a thousand other things
to draw the glance on this first veritable
dawning of spring, none but the willows
convey a sense of entire fulfilment. Look-
ing up the glowing vista, it is as though one
looked forth through flung-back golden gates
at the "city all built of pure shining gold "
lying bevond, resplendent and eternal.
Photo: 5. Crcok.
As he darts along the stream the Kingfisher draws a streak of
glittering blue from bank to bank.
1 .
Wonders of Bird Life
Photo: Henry
The Nightingale, one of the most famous British migrants, is better known to the
ear than to the eye in early summer.
l.-THE MIGRATION OF BRITISH BIRDS
By A. LANDSBOROUGH THOMSON, O.B.E., D.Sc.
THE most familiar aspect of bird-
migration in the British Isles is the
appearance in spring and early summer,
year after year, of a number of well-known
species. The first swallows fly twittering
over the pond, the first warblers sing sweetly
in the gardens, the first corncrakes call
harshly in the fields, the first swifts dash
screaming round the house-tops. Then for
a few brief months these birds are with us,
busy with the duties of the nesting season,
until autumn comes, when they and their
young take their departure for " warmer
lands and coasts that keep the sun."
There is, however, another side to this
picture. Just as the birds which are summer
visitors to this country must obviously be
winter visitors to some more southern
lands, so there are birds which spend the
summer farther north and come to this
country for the winter. The fieldfare and
the redwing, cousins of the thrush, are ex-
amples of winter visitors to the British
Isles. In addition, there are birds, such as
some of the sandpiper group, which spend
the summer farther north and the winter
farther south, and are known to us only as
birds of passage in autumn and in spring.
WONDERS OF BIRD LIFE
In contrast to these three kinds of
migrants there are the numerous species
which are apparently resident in that
they are to be found here throughout the
year.
But it does not follow because a species
is resident in this sense that the individual
birds are necessarily sedentary. The in-
dividuals may all
be migratory,
winter visitors and
summer visitors of
the same species
replacing each other
with the seasons.
Or some individuals
may be sedentary,
or at most local
migrants within the
limits of the
country, while
others are migratory
in high degree.
Such a common
species as the song-
thrush, found all
the year round in
the British Isles, is
composed of both
sedentary and
migratory in-
dividuals, while of
the latter some are
summer visitors,
some winter visitors
from the north, and
others merely birds
of passage. This
is indeed charac-
teristic of the
British Isles and
attributable to the
temperate climatic
conditions that prevail therein. The country
lies within the region where the summer
distribution and the winter distribution of
many species overlap.
As we have spoken of migrants being of
different kinds, it is necessary to note that
the distinction is a relative one based on
our own local point of view. Migration,
broadly speaking, is actually all of the same
kind. Birds which are summer visitors
here are winter visitors somewhere else,
and the terms have no meaning except as
Photo: Capt. H. Mc-rrey Salmon, Af.C.
The Redshank is one of those migrants
which are represented all the year round
in the British Isles. In summer it haunts
fens, marshes and boggy districts.
applied to the particular country of which
we are thinking. We may go even further
and restrict the application of the terms in
some cases to particular parts of the country ;
the snow bunting, for instance, is a winter
visitor to most parts of this country, but is
found in summer not only in more northern
lands but also on the tops of the higher
Scottish mountains.
Migration from a
cosmopolitan point
of view, then, is all
of one kind. In-
dividual birds are
either migratory or
sedentary, and
species are com-
posed either wholly
of migrants, wholly
of residents, or of a
mixture of both.
When migration
takes place it is
from summer
quarters in a colder
country to winter
quarters in a warmer
one, and the
principle is that
every bird breeds in
the coldest part of
its range. It is
indeed more
accurate to speak of
colder and warmer
climates than of
northern and
southern countries,
for migration is by
no means necessarily
from north to south.
Much migration in-
deed takes place in
Europe on an almost due east to west
line, the British Isles and neighbouring
countries enjoying a much milder winter
than is experienced in the same latitudes
farther east. The general trend of the most
important migratory movements in North-
eastern Europe is south-westerly in autumn
and north-easterly in spring. The accom-
panying map indicates diagrammatically the
main movements affecting the British area.
It is of interest in passing to mention
that many of our summer visitors are not
THE PAGEANT OF NATURE
content to find winter quarters in the
northern sub-tropics, but traverse the
equator to the southern temperate regions,
where they perform the paradox of
" wintering " in the summer of the
other hemisphere in which the seasons
are the reverse of our own. It so happens,
however, that no migrants native to
the southern hemisphere travel far enough
Photo ; A. M.- C. Nicholl.
The Cuckoo is perhaps the most interesting of our spring
visitants by reason of its parasitic habits. This young Cuckoo
is resting before the great southward flight of autumn.
to visit us during our summer in like
manner.
We have spoken of spring and autumn as
the seasons of migration, but it must not be
supposed that it is only during a brief
period twice a year that migratory move-
ments take place. There is indeed not a
single month of the twelve in which migra-
tion of some kind does not occur in the
British area. The arrival of summer visitors
may begin as early as February, and for
some species it is in full swing before the
end of March. April is a great month of
influx, but May is still more important,
while even in June arrivals are still occurring.
Many of the later birds, however, are en
route for more northern lands where the
summer is tardier in beginning. The
exodus of our winter visitors may also begin
before the end of February, although as a
rule rather later than the first arrivals from
the south, and similarly continues until May
or even June.
The autumn emigration begins on a small
scale in July, and the arrival of birds from
the north to a rather
less extent, while in
August the southward
movements both to and
from the British Isles
become pronounced.
The first birds to leave
us are probably adults
which have been un-
fortunate in their
nesting operations the
adult cuckoos are also
regularly early in their
departure
-but
they are
soon fol-
lowed by
larger
numbers
of young birds, only a few
weeks old, travelling in
advance of their parents,
while the latter are in
many cases either rearing
second broods or under-
going their autumn moult.
In September and October
the autumn movements
are at their height, and
they still continue. In
January a few kinds of
birds which customarily travel in winter
are regularly recorded, and the onset of
very severe weather even as late as
February, when the spring migration is at
hand may often lead to a revival and ex-
tension of the ordinary autumn movements.
Thus we see that the stream of migrants
is a tide which is always ebbing and flowing.
Only for a few weeks twice a year, about the
beginning of July and the beginning of
February, is there a period of " slack
water " before the turn.
Relatively few species of birds in this part
of the world are wholly sedentary ; most of
in November
December and
16
Photo : Capt. Oliver G. Pike.
WHINCHAT ALIGHTING.
The Whinchat is one of the migrants arriving in spring and taking its departure in the
early autumn.
THE PAGEANT OF NATURE
them are at least partly composed of come in over the North Sea or follow the
migratory individuals whether or not some shore-line southwards. And from sea-going
representatives are present at all times of vessels birds may sometimes be seen
the year ; and throughout the greater part journeying far from land and even seeking
Photo: Henry IVii'ford.
A "partial migrant," the Meadow Pipit nests most commonly in pasture and
moorland districts, and is frequently the victim of the Cuckoo.
of the four seasons, as we have just noted,
movements of one kind or another are
taking place. Nevertheless we see lit.tle
enough of migration actually in progress,
and the ordinary inhabitant of the country-
side might never suspect its existence were
it not for the complete absence of some
species at certain seasons, or the periodical
variations in the numbers of others.
Migration takes place very largely at
night, even in the case of birds which are
not ordinarily nocturnal, and for this reason
usually escapes notice. Sometimes, how-
ever, the cries of the travelling flocks may
be heard overhead on a still night, even
from city streets; and to the lighthouses
and lightships round our coasts vast num-
bers of migrants are often attracted, under
certain atmospheric conditions, by the
blinding glare of the lanterns, when many
dash themselves to death against the glass.
The careful observer on the coast may
sometimes see evidence of migration during
the day, especially in autumn when flocks
temporary rest on the rigging or decks.
Migration is less often observable in inland
districts, but, especially in the secondary
winter movements that sometimes occur
after the onset of very severe weather,
flocks and small parties may sometimes be
seen travelling across country.
It was at one time supposed by many that
birds commonly migrated at great altitudes
and so escaped observation during the day,
but further evidence, including the experi-
ence of aviators, has destroyed this belief.
It seems, indeed, that it is unusual for birds,
whether migrating or otherwise, to seek
those levels of the upper air in which they
would be invisible from the ground. Much
migration, in fact, takes place at very low
altitudes, often within a few feet of the
ground or of the surface of the sea. A
similarly exploded belief is that migrants
fly at high speeds, greatly exceeding those
of their every-day flight ; a leisurely, steady
pace is actually the rule. Of the distances
which are covered in a single flight it is
18
WONDERS OF BIRD LIFE
difficult to speak with certainty, but in some
parts of the world there are wide expanses
of open sea which must be traversed by
land birds without a halt.
The broad fact of bird-migration has been
known to mankind for thousands of years,
as witnessed by references in The Book of Job,
in the Iliad of Homer, and in the poems of
Anacreon, but it is only within comparatively
recent years that the subject has become a
matter for exact scientific study. What was
formerly merely a marvel to be wondered at,
or a fact to be taken for granted, has aroused
the curiosity of the nature-lover and the
interest of the biologist. The study of
migration, however, has been hampered by
the great difficulties in the way of adequate
observation, and we are in consequence still
far from being fully informed as to the facts
summer visitors or wholly winter visitors
to the British Isles. More useful still has
been the systematic collection of records
of migration observed actually in progress
at the light-stations round our coasts, and it
is from this source that a great part of our
present knowledge is derived. Intensive
study by experienced ornithologists at par-
ticularly favourable stations has added still
further to the growing store of facts.
The study of movements in the mass is
nevertheless incapable of yielding the whole
secret of the matter. It must be supple-
mented by some means of tracing the journeys
of individual birds so that we may discover,
for instance, where birds from a particular
summer locality go to in winter as compared
with those from other summer localities,
and whether or not it is the native individuals
Photo : T. M. FotvUr.
The Great Skua, seen in the act of alighting at the nest, breeds in the Shetland Isles
and is a rather uncommon winter visitor to the remainder of the British coasts.
of the case. One method of study lies in of a species which take part in a particular
the compiling of records of arrivals and movement. Of late years a good beginning
departures in different parts of the country, has been made both in this country and
and much has been done by this method in abroad with the study of migration by the
the case of those species which are wholly method of bird-marking. Young birds are
'9
THE PAGEANT OF NATURE
marked in the nest (or old birds may
sometimes be caught for the purpose) with
an aluminium ring placed round one leg.
This ring is inscribed with the name and
address of the marking organisation (e.g.
"Witherby, High Holborn, London," or
r
Photo : Capt. H. Morrey Salmon, M.C.
The Lapwing, although partly sedentary in
the British Isles, is also both a summer
visitor and a winter visitor.
" Aberdeen University ") and with an iden-
tification number. Some of these marked
birds, usually a very small proportion, are
subsequently reported in various ways and
from various places, sometimes several years
later. In this way exact information is
being accumulated as to the journeys
performed by individual birds, and many
interesting facts have already come to light.
It has been shown by the marking method,
for example, that most of our native star-
lings are either strictly resident or migratory
in a merely local sense ; a few may be
summer visitors to the British Isles, but
only a single record from just across the
Channel at present supports this view. On
the other hand, starlings visit the British
Isles in winter from Denmark, Southern
and Arctic Norway, Sweden, Finland,
Northern Germany, the Baltic States and
Western Russia. Records of starlings
marked abroad also show journeys from
Finland to Southern France, from Central
Germany to Spain and Portugal, and from
Hungary to Italy and Northern Africa.
Similarly, in the case of the lapwing or
peewit an autumn emigration of native
birds has been very clearly demonstrated,
although a few have been shown to be seden-
tary. Of the migrants many go no farther
than from Northern Britain to Ireland, but
others reach Western France, Northern
Spain, and Portugal.
Striking results have also been obtained
in the case of British swallows, but these
will be mentioned in a subsequent chapter
in which it is proposed to treat that species
as a typical example of a migrant.
Certain general features of the phenomena
of bird-migration stand clearly forth. Most
striking of all is their vastness, the hundreds
of species and millions of individual birds
which participate, the thousands of miles
that are covered twice a year in some cases,
and the fact that there are only a few weeks
in the year during which some movement
does not occur. Then there is their com-
plexity, as witnessed by such facts as that
a single species may be represented in the
British area by individual birds which are
respectively residents, summer visitors,
winter visitors and birds of passage, or that
the directions of simultaneous movements
may cross each other as in the case of south-
ward migration along our eastern seaboard
in autumn and the east to west flight of
immigrants from Holland to the south-east
of England at the same season. And
despite the vastness and complexity of the
phenomena there is their wonderful
regularity, the exactness with which move-
ments are repeated at the same time year
after year, and the accuracy with which some
birds, as shown by marking, return to the
same breeding places in successive seasons.
Bearing these facts in mind it is not
surprising that the meaning of it all is still
wrapped in mystery. It is perhaps not
difficult to suggest the purpose which is
served (that some end must be served
by a habit so expensive in energy and
20
THE PAGEANT OF NATURE
life is obvious). Migration towards the
north in spring procures a greater choice of
nesting sites, wider and less crowded
feeding grounds, and longer hours of day-
light during the breeding season. South-
ward movement in autumn serves to avoid
the cold, the hunger and the shortened day
of the northern winter. But there is a
difference between a purpose served and an
actual cause. It cannot be supposed that
the birds act reasonably to achieve a con-
scious purpose ; and it cannot be that
the seasonal conditions themselves create
migration, for much migration occurs, as we
have seen, long before the need is pressing
or even apparent, and the phenomena are