YOUNG CUCKOO RESTING ON ITS JOURNEY SOUTH 



THE SOUTHWARD FLIGHT 



The departure of the summer birds first becomes con- 

 spicuous in October, though it has been in progress ever 

 since the flight of the parent cuckoos in July. Most of the 

 summer migrants live so silent and elusive a life after the 

 young are hatched that it is difficult to trace their move- 

 ments ; and when some bird has been familiar to eye or ear 

 for many weeks, we are apt to overlook its departure, and 

 only later to realise that it has been missing for an indefinite 

 time. Old cuckoos are able to slip away so early because 

 they avoid bringing up their young; but the young cuckoos 

 do not go until late August or September, and thus receive 

 no guidance from their parents on the journey. The exact 

 processes of migration are still so imperfectly understood 

 that we cannot tell whether the young cuckoos are guided to 

 their winter homes in Central and Southern Africa by trans- 

 mitted habit or 'instinct,' by the direct influence of the 

 changing weather in more northern climes, or by following 

 other migrants. Next to the parent cuckoos, the first birds 

 to leave the country are the swifts. Their usual time of 

 departure is the second week in August ; but it is not very 

 uncommon to see one or two stragglers as late as the 

 beginning of September. The swift is one of the latest 

 birds to come, as well as the earliest to go ; a bare three 



