45 
West Sussex was a most favoured area for rare bird visitors. 
Within the last two years we had had the Spoonbill and Hoopoe at 
Bosham, the Smew at Burton Park, the Ringed Guillemot at Westdean 
_ Wood, fourteen miles inland (marked by Gould as very rare at Plymouth 
where the common Guillemots are in plenty), and, the rarest of all 
rarities, a splendid kite was taken at Horsham. The lines which 
birds observe in migration had been called by the Americans 
“flight lines,” a serviceable name. These invisible erial railways 
were generally straight, especially when they were of great 
length. Sometimes these bird-railways cross each other at right 
angles. ‘There was one crossing in Sussex, north to south being one 
path, and east to west another, but generally the bird flew straight and 
at great height. The first symptom of coming migration on the part 
of the common swallow was that the birds’ flight over the meadow was no 
longer in semi-circles, but much straighter, in fact more like the swift’s. 
For several years he had observed the straight line of migration main- 
tained by the water wagtails, eminently a roadside bird, when they go 
due north in early spring. About the end of March to the third week 
in April our roads, which are straight north and south, are dotted with 
these charming birds, and when they reach us they stay some time under 
the Downs ; but by the second week in May they have all gone up in- 
land due north, by their Great Northern Railway. All birds breed in 
the coldest climate which they visit in their migrations, and Sussex 
was, generally speaking, too warm for the water-wagtail to breed in. 
The robin stayed in England to breed because England, the robin’s 
coldest point, had the warmth of the Gulf Stream in certain places 
for the winter ; the same birds could not winter in Germany, because 
it was too cold. The robin should have the welcome of a national 
bird in England ; and the robin told us in spite of our groans, that 
an English winter is mild. As to the cross-roads, or birds’ carfaxes, 
Mr. Seebohm described the Sussex Downs in autumn as a cross way 
between the soft-billed summer birds going, via Dover, south, and 
the hard-billed seed-eaters migrating due west, having crossed the 
German Ocean from Scandinavia possibly by way of Heligoland and 
now following the English coast line, and sending in small parties to 
winter in our mild climate. Here they had the cross line between the 
road south for the soft gentry, and the road west for the more robust ; 
but each went straight on his line of march, like abee out of ahive. And 
it was probable that the sand grouse, once started west, went straight on 
occupying the same breadth of area with which he started in Asia, 
across Europe, to Britain, till the Atlantic stopped him, as it did the 
ancient Celts. Ornithologists now divided migrant birds into three 
groups—(1). Breeders in spring. and migrants in autumn to winter 
elsewhere, e.g., cuckoo and swallow. (2). Winterers, going to better 
breeding grounds in spring, eg., fieldfare and widgeon. (3). Fitful 
comers, one month in spring and one in autumn, e.g., little stint and 
dusky redshank, and here in Sussex might be added the ring ouzel. 
All these birds represented breeding in the north and wintering in the 
south. It was a rule without exception that each bird breeds in the 
coldest climate it reaches in its migration, Two other rules might be 
added to this :—(a) The further north a bird goes to breed in the 
