AIICRATOUY lURDS: SPRING 117 



The Redwings were obviously on their way to their 

 northern breeding grounds, and there can be Httle 

 doubt that the Song-Thrushes and StarHngs arriving at 

 that date were on a similar errand. The mixture of 

 migrants indicated is not the exception, but the rule, at 

 this period of the season ; and later it becomes quite 

 impossible to discriminate, in the case of identical 

 species, between indi\^iduals which are bent upon spend- 

 inof the summer in our isles, and those which are en route 

 to nesting haunts beyond our shores. These remarks do 

 not apply to the Nightingale, Reed- Warbler, Marsh- 

 Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Thicknee or Stone 

 Curlew, Kentish Plover, etc., which are summer visitors 

 only, and do not occur as birds of passage on our shores. 



Passage Movements} — The arrivals on our shores 

 during April include a fresh set of migrants for the 

 season — namely, the Birds of Passage which are en 

 route from their southern winter quarters to their 

 summer homes to the north and east of us. 



The first of these arrivals appear in company with 

 our summer visitors, as has just been related, and they 

 often leave us in company with birds of the same species 

 which have spent the winter in our midst, such as the 

 Redwing, Fieldfare, and many others, which are likewise 

 proceeding to their northern summer quarters. When 

 this is the case, it is impossible to distinguish between 

 the individuals on passage and emigrating British winter 

 visitors ; the birds of passage, however, seldom make 

 their way inland, but traverse the coast-lines and their 

 vicinity, though they be Thrushes, Warblers, or other 

 land-birds. 



^ For a list of the Birds of Passage, with the dates between which their 

 movements are performed, see page 129. 



I. H 2 



