128 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



folk- — feathered mites such as tits and goldcrests, together 

 with all the short-winged warblers — cover their distances ? 

 Knowledge of these birds while here, with close observa- 

 tion of their habits and powers, appear absolutely to 

 negative the possibility of their flying unaided across 

 wide seas. None of the small warblers ever flies one 

 hundred yards on end during the four months they 

 spend with us. Yet, at the end of that period, they all 

 start on a straightaway flight of two, three, or four 

 thousand miles. A few typical cases, though conveying 

 nothing new to ornithologists, will serve to emphasise 

 the point to others : — 



Goldcrest. — Length 3A inches, wing 2 inches, weight 

 95 grains. Habitually crosses the North Sea \>y 

 thousands — distance 400 miles. 



Willow -wren. — Length 5 inches, wing 2I inches. 

 Summers not only in Northumberland, but right up 

 to the North Cape in Norway, and winters in Africa, 

 direct distance, North Cape to Algeria 2550 miles; and 

 it goes far beyond this. 



The chiffchaff (wing 2 \ inches) and the whitethroat 

 halt by the Polar circle ; but the wheatear, blackcap, and 

 garden-warbler, along with several others of our small 

 summer- warblers, wagtails, etc., push on as far north as 

 land stretches in Europe. Yet all, as a rule, winter 

 beyond the Mediterranean — at least 2500 miles; and 

 I have myself seen the wheatear, wagtails, tree-pipit, 

 and others far further south than that — another 2600 

 miles, namely in British East Africa, beyond the 

 equator. 



Tree-pipit. — We found this small bird breeding beyond 

 the Arctic circle and in Finmark (70° N. lat.) ; yet, as 

 just stated, I recognised it at Nairobi in British East 



