MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 273 
THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS AND CEYLON 
MIGRANTS. 
By W. E. Wart, M.A., F.Z.S8. 
HE migration of birds may roughly be defined for general 
purposes as the seasonal movements of those birds which 
spend the winter and the breeding season in different regions. 
These seasonal movements are well known in all countries, and 
references to them may be found in the literature of all ages. 
There is an allusion in Job to the migrant Hawk ; the Greek 
poets Anacreon and Homer speak of the migration of the 
Crane and the Swallow ; the arrival of the Cuckoo and the 
Swallow with the returning spring in England, and of the 
Stork in Continental Europe, are constant themes in folklore 
and proverb. In Ceylon the advent of the Snipe and other 
birds in autumn and their departure from the Island at Easter 
are well known to all of us. 
Many people, however, are unaware of the enormous number 
of birds which migrate, or of the scope and complexity of 
their migrations. Within the last hundred years the subject 
has received increasing attention, and especially within the last 
quarter of a century a mass of observations has been patiently 
recorded, chiefly in temperate climates. From these records 
have been deduced many clearly-ascertained facts, which have 
thrown much light on the question, and beyond these facts 
a number of theories and surmises have been propounded to 
account for many problems which still remain a mystery. 
In temperate regions the number of species which migrate 
is relatively far higher than in the tropics. In England, for 
instance, nearly every species is migratory to a greater or less 
extent ; the migrants are by no means confined to those species 
which, like the Swallow and the Cuckoo, are purely summer 
residents, or, like the Fieldfare and Wild Swan, purely winter 
visitors. 
