Excerpt from Birds Through the Year To every bird-lover the day when he sees or hears the first summer visitor makes a great landmark in the year. On some soft morning Of late March, when the south-west wind seems to suck a new smell of growth from the plastic clods, the chiming cry of the Chiffchaff comes once more from the thorn-brake or the hazel-wood, or the wheatear is seen flicking Over the banks on the common; and then a newer and gladder era seems once more to Open, and we cast Off the Old thoughts and mental habits of the winter season. 'behold, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone.' Now is the time Of the singing of birds; and the cry Of the first chiffchaff from overseas is the true voice Of spring returning to our northern islands. The voice Of the turtle, which stands as the type Of Spring in Solomon's Song, is heard later with us than in Palestine; in England it is a murmur of later May, and Of the elder-groves in midsummer blossom. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.