160 MIGRATION. 



time during which they perform their migrations,) they might thus be enabled 

 to fly a few miles, when fatigued to settle, float, rise again, rest again, 

 and so on, for neither birds nor fish are met with on the expanse of the 

 boundless ocean, and these always indicate the vicinity of land to mariners. 

 I only offer these observations as suggestive, and do not pretend to ad- 

 vance them as having a spark of foundation, for I have hardly any doubt 

 that, except the Swallows and such powerful flyers, the mass of migratory 

 birds make the least possible journeying distance over sea, indeed it is quite 

 unnecessary for them to do so. It is also somewhat singular that Gilbert 

 White, who seems to be satisfied of this to a great degree, from the 

 representations of his brother who lived in Andalusia, should fix upon Swal- 

 lows, most capable of sea-flights, as the only kind that did not take them. 

 As to migration never having been regularly observed, it is performed 

 necessarily in such an uncertain manner, from the different circumstances 

 and necessities of the individuals engaged in it, that it would be indeed 

 a surprising thing if it had been. 



Besides these migrations to foreign countries, there are others which take 

 place even within the narrow precincts of our own little island, from north 

 to south, westerly or easterly, and so on. These arise from the difference 

 of climate, and consequent state of the earth, which is observable between 

 the different portions of Great Britain, and food is no doubt the chief 

 directing cause in these movements. Of these internal migrations the 

 Whinchat, 52 the Wagtails, the Pigeons, the Ring Ouzel, and the Snipe, are 

 examples which are always to be found in certain mild districts, whilst 

 in others they are only seen at stated times, and their return regularly 

 expected. The migration of the Ring Ouzel was first brought into public 

 notice by the Rev. Gilbert White, before mentioned; these birds it seems 

 breed on Dartmoor, in Devonshire, and are found throughout the whole 

 year in Scotland, where they do not perform any migration, a somewhat 

 startling anomaly! Whither they depart when they pass eastward in the 

 autumn is not well ascertained, but it is very unlikely that they leave this 

 country. I have seen them on Brighton Downs, in October, and they are 

 very much dispersed over the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, and 

 Berkshire, in the early part of October, and as regularly return westward 

 the first week in April, and are very late breeders, as they are then only 

 repairing to their nesting places. 



In the fourth volume of "The Naturalist," at page 247, I have referred 

 to the circumstance of this migration having been observed before Gilbert 

 White wrote, by an old man who resided at Sunninghill, in Berkshire; 

 and others there have mentioned to me the same circumstance. They were 

 known by them as French Magpies, a name, by the way, also given to 

 * Stonechat ?— F. 0. Morris. 



