Page:Bird Life Throughout the Year (Salter, 1913).djvu/254

180 their own. Those migrants which showed their superior hardiness by being the first to come are amongst the last to go. The Wheatear lingers for some time longer about the sand-dunes and warrens of the coast, and the Chiffchaff may be seen, often hawking for the flies attracted by the flowering ivy, until October is well under weigh. The Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits collect in the meadows and upon low-lying flats in preparation for moving southward. In fact the migratory flocks of pipits are as familiar a feature at this time of year as they were upon their return in spring. The birds move in leisurely fashion, and will often spend the greater part of a day chasing and playing about a sunny slope.

It is to arrivals from the north that we must look to fill the ranks thinned by the departure of the soft-billed summer birds. The Snipe come to reinforce the numbers, comparatively small, of their kindred which have remained with us to breed. Flights of waders—Godwit and Knot, Greenshank and Grey Plover—settle upon the mud-banks and oozy channels of the coast, often to pass on after a few hours of rest. The Wigeon, first of the "flight ducks" to reach us, pitch in sheltered bays and upon tidal waters, where also the Divers once more appear, following the southward movements of sprat and herring. Many of them are young birds, and the old ones no longer show the distinctive plumage which they exhibit during the