94 BIRDS OF NOHFOLK. 



passengers, and whicli, with the characteristic effrontery 

 of their species, stationed themselves, the one at the 

 front of the vessel, the other at the stem, and fought 

 on the least intrusion into each other's territory." 

 There is, unfortunately, no statement as to the course 

 these birds were observed to be taking; but from the 

 time of year and the species enumerated, we may 

 infer they were proceeding more or less in a southerly 

 direction; and whilst it raises the question whether 

 robins from more northern countries may not swell 

 the numbers of our resident birds in autumn, as is 

 the case with the tiny goldcrests and other delicate 

 forms, it renders it by no means improbable that some 

 of our home-bred robins may in like manner leave us for 

 a warmer climate. At present, at least, I have no direct 

 proof of their arrival on our coast, either from their 

 being picked up under the telegraph wires, or at the 

 foot of our light-houses; but I have certainly been 

 struck on more than one occasion in the autumn months, 

 with the very unusual number of robins observed by the 

 roadside. On the 11th of October, 1864, when driving 

 early in the morning, between Wymondham and Funden- 

 haU, a distance of about four miles, my attention was 

 attracted by the constant succession of robins (from their 

 pale breasts and unfinished plumage, apparently birds of 

 the year), that appeared on the trees and fences on either 

 side. As usual scarcely two birds were seen together, but 

 single individuals appeared nearly all the way at short 

 intervals, and if collected like linnets into one flock, would 

 have given the impression of numbers even more forcibly. 

 Could these then have been for the most part autumnal 

 migrants, or indications only of the large quantities 

 reared in this county as a favoured race ? If merely 

 the latter, then undoubtedly we have httle need to 

 repeat the enquiry so often made, "what becomes of 

 the large number of robins annually reared in this 



