17 JUNE 1949, Page 20

Recoveries

How quick is the recovery from the destructive shocks of nature. Those species of bird that seemed to be almost wiped out by the severe frosts of two years ago—green woodpeckers and long-tailed tits for example— seem to some observers to be more than usually numerous. It is an exceptional year for migrant warblers, especially, I think, for the nightingale and the garden warbler, and the white-throat. Among the very few species that seem to be in short supply, as they say in shops, are house-martins, reported to be wholly absent in some usually favourite haunts, and the plover, that best of the farmer's friends. There is some reason to fear that modern methods of cultivation, especially the ley and its early cutting, are a menace to both the partridge and the plover.