4 STUDIES IN BIRD-MIGRATION 



front wait for those in the rear, owing to the fact that 

 when the flock is passing over the intervening mountain 

 range, the birds in the rear lose sight of their com- 

 panions in the van. . . . All creatures are fatter in 

 migrating from cold to heat than in migrating from heat 

 to cold ; thus the Quail is fatter when he emigrates 

 in autumn than when he arrives in spring. The 

 migration from cold countries is contemporaneous with 

 the close of the hot season. 



" The Cushat and the Rock-Dove migrate, and never 

 winter in our country, as is the case also with the 

 Turtle-Dove. . . . The Quail also migrates — only, by 

 the way, a few Quails and Turtle- Doves may stay 

 behind here and there in sunny districts. Cushats and 

 Turtle-Doves flock together, both when they arrive 

 and when the season for migration comes round 

 again. . . . When the Quails come from abroad 

 they have no leaders, but when they migrate hence, 

 the Glottis flits along with them, as does also the 

 Landrail and the Eared Owl. The Swan and the 

 Lesser Goose are also migratory. 



" A great number of birds also go into hiding ; they 

 do not all migrate, as is generally supposed, to warmer 

 countries. Thus, certain birds (as the Kite and the 

 Swallow), when they are not far ofi" from places of this 

 kind, in which they have their permanent abode, betake 

 themselves thither ; others that are at a distance from 

 such places, decline the trouble of migration, and simply 

 hide themselves where they are. Swallows, for instance, 

 have been often found in holes, quite denuded of their 

 feathers, and the Kite on its first emergence from 

 torpidity has been seen to fly from out some such 

 hiding-place. And with regard to this phenomenon 



