CHAPTER X 



MIGRATION AND DISTRIBUTION 



IN the realm of Ornithology, and, indeed, in all the 

 study of Nature, there are few questions that appeal so 

 strongly to the imagination, and few questions of which 

 man is still so ignorant, as that of the Migration of Birds. 

 From his boyhood Newton was keenly interested in 

 migration, and with his brother Edward he kept for 

 many years a record of the movements of the birds at 

 Elveden. 



The ordinary observer, until lately at least, never 

 thought of birds being resident as a species while they 

 were migratory as individuals. Thus it came to pass 

 that scarcely anybody knew of the migration in this 

 country of the Song-Thrush, the Redbreast, and others. 

 It needs a considerable familiarity, not only with the 

 district, but with the individual birds frequenting it, 

 to find that out, and in some cases it is very difficult to 

 do so. I have never been able to observe for myself 

 any indication of the Hedge-Sparrow being migratory, 

 yet I feel sure that it is. Fifty years ago I observed the 

 local movements of the Redbreast, but it was not until 

 I had passed some two or three seasons (July and August) 

 in Dorset, that I noticed its actual migration, and that 

 in considerable numbers. 



It seems to me probable, though I cannot prove it, 

 that the young broods of nearly all birds leave the place 

 of their birth as soon as they are fit to travel. People 

 commonly say they are driven away by their parents, 

 and in some cases that certainly seems to be so ; but I 

 very much doubt whether it is in the majority of species, 



160 



