268 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



manner that does not obtain outside coal-bearing regions ; 

 and this facilitates tracing both local movements and 

 oversea migrations throughout the year. 



To set down what appears to be as nearly an average 

 as possible, there occurs one main annual immigration 

 of wood-pigeons some time before Christmas. Occasion- 

 ally this may take place as early as November ; in other 

 years it is delayed until the middle or even the end of 

 January. The new-comers are recognisable as above 

 described ; but indeed there remain at that period but 

 few cushats in this district, since most of those locally 

 bred depart southwards as soon as their latest broods 

 are fledged — not later than October. There thus occurs 

 in this case also, a perceptible interval between the 

 departure of the home-bred birds and the arrival of the 

 foreigners from oversea. 



That this influx is from foreign lands is shown by the 

 observed migrations of pigeons across the North Sea 

 recorded in the Migration Reports; these birds, more- 

 over, are also regularly seen by fishermen off this 

 coast, as they "make the land" shortly after dawn on 

 late autumn mornings. It coincides also in date with 

 the withdrawal of the pigeon-tribe from the great forest- 

 regions of central Europe. The course of these birds 

 in search of a milder clime thus lies east and west — and 

 indeed rather to the northward of that line. This 

 deviation from the usual direction pursued by migrants 

 on similiar quest — that is, towards the south— is explained 

 by the greater intensity of continental cold as compared 

 with that of our insular winter. 



That these migrants have not come from the more 

 northern parts of our own islands is demonstrated by the 

 fact that there is no diminution, but an actual increase 



