BIRDS OF THE HOMESTEAD 53 



vary considerably in many localities at different 

 periods of the year. The seasonal movements of 

 any resident species are rarely easy to follow, and 

 often impossible, in our present state of know- 

 ledge, to account for. Yarrell states that "to- 

 wards the end of summer the old birds, for the most 

 part, withdraw from ordinary observation, betaking 

 themselves to the shelter and comparative privacy 

 which the luxuriant foliage of the season affords 

 them, w^hile, food being plentiful and obtained with 

 little exertion, these conditions favour their success- 

 fully undergoing the annual moult — one of the 

 severest strains to which bird life is exposed. This 

 process completed, they return towards autumn to 

 their familiar haunts, which, in the meantime, have 

 been occupied by their progeny, the young of the 

 preceding spring. The old birds, then in renewed 

 vigour, proceed to engage the young, and each 

 lawn and thicket becomes a battlefield; but, so far 

 from the vulgar belief (that the young birds destroy 

 their elders) being well founded, the young, in fact, 

 are almost invariably worsted, and possession re- 

 mains with the victorious parents. What becomes 

 of the defeated is not exactly known, but it may 

 be plausibly suggested that, driven away from the 

 place of their birth, they join the numerous bands 

 of allied species which are then seeking more 

 southern regions, and help to swell the stream of 

 migrants then setting forth steadily to warmer 

 climes." 



That many of these birds actually leave Eng- 

 land is known, and it also seems clear that the 

 accession and diminution of numbers in given 



