190 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



another which has spent its summer in this latter region, 

 may not find its economic instincts satisfied till it has 

 reached the south of Europe. 



A prominent feature of the month of September, which 

 everyone must have noticed while partridge-shooting, is 

 the immense congregations of small birds that everywhere 

 pervade the lower lands. Each field of root-crop may 

 hold many hundreds. Almost at every step they flutter up 

 underfoot by dozens from among the turnips or potatoes. 

 The species so found consist chiefly of blackbirds, thrushes, 

 skylarks, pipits, linnets, greenfinches, and redstarts — some- 

 times also the tiny golden-crested wrens in very considerable 

 numbers. These birds are not the ordinary denizens of 

 the neighbouring woods, fields, and gardens simply 

 seeking a change ; for the said ordinary denizens still 

 remain in their accustomed haunts and in undiminished 

 numbers. The birds in question are all birds on passage 

 — travellers from over-sea — and their presence synchron- 

 ises with recorded observations of their movements 

 collected at lighthouses and similar points around the 

 coast. 



These " Reports," collected in book-form by the 

 Migration Committee of the British Association, are now 

 available for general perusal. They demonstrate that 

 this September influx is exactly what we might expect. 

 For it coincides with the period when birds of the species 

 named do cross the North Sea, and reach our east coast 

 in successive flights. Within a few weeks, all these pass 

 on southwards. Probably no individual bird lingers here 

 more than a few days ; yet the " through-transit" of such 

 numbers, arriving and departing in successive hosts, 

 occupies the period stated. 



The evidence of their continued journey southward is 



