220 STUDIES IN IJIRU-MIGRATION 



With April, perhaps earlier, the British emigratory 

 movements doubtless become merged with those, to be 

 dealt with next, of the Thrushes which are on passage 

 along our coastline, proceeding from their more southern 

 winter to their more northern summer quarters. 



Spring Passage to Northern Europe. — The first 

 appearance of the Thrush as a bird of passage takes 

 place during the latter half of March, ^ when the birds 

 which have wintered in South- Western Europe, and are 

 en route for breeding quarters to the north of our isles, 

 arrive on the south coast of England in company 

 with Blackbirds, Fieldfares, Redwings, Wheatears, 

 Warblers, Skylarks, Starlings, and occasionally Wood- 

 cocks. 



The passage continues throughout April, and down 

 to mid-May, the voyagers, in company with Mistle- 

 Thrushes, Ring-Ouzels, Redstarts, Blackcaps, Sedge- 

 Warblers, and Corn-Crakes, in addition to the species 

 already mentioned, pass northwards, chiefly along our 

 eastern seaboard, and are joined, while en route, by 

 many of our British emigrant Thrushes. 



Such is the history of the Song-Thrush as a British 

 migratory bird, when the tangled skein of its various 

 movements has been unravelled and reduced to order. 

 It is one that is only excelled in its complexity by a few 

 species of British migrants, such as the Starling and the 

 Skylark. 



^ From igth to 26th March 1898, the Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 

 F.R.S., records an increasing number of thrushes around his rectory at 

 Wareham on the coast of Dorset. On the 25th the land was fairly covered 

 with them, and there must have been 200 or more in one field. On the 26th 

 there were even more. On the 27th there were fewer, and by the evening 

 of the 28th all had departed. — Zool.^ 1898, p. 264. 



