8 
their lives ; hence, doubtless, it is, that the young of so many of the 
rarer northern species (Eagles, Gulls, Divers, &c.) are found fur- 
ther to the south than the old birds. 
With respect to the autumnal departure of many kinds of our 
smaller migrants, it would appear that most, if not all of them, 
assemble along our south coast ready for departure on the occurrence 
of a favourable wind. Having once crossed the channel to France or 
Portugal, their further southern journey becomes an easy one, and is 
doubtless performed by short stages until they reach the shores of the 
Mediterranean, which in the case of our own birds is probably crossed 
at the narrowest portion, viz. Gibraltar, or some other promontory of 
Southern Spain, their destination being the coast of Morocco; on the 
other hand, those of Central Europe migrate by the way of Sicily 
and Malta to Algeria, while those which have passed the summer 
still further east proceed in a direct line to Egypt. North and 
south, and vice versd, is in my opinion their instinctive movement ; 
and this natural impulse is so blindly followed that the Quail, when 
migrating, will, if possible, fly through a house or over a mountain 
rather than turn aside from its course, which would not be the case 
were reason its guide; in this respect it resembles the Norwegian 
Lemming, whose onward course is stopped neither by lakes nor hills, 
and some species of ants, whose movements are equally undeviating. 
The British Islands and Europe generally, to which the fore- 
going remarks on migration almost solely refer, are, however, only 
a small portion of the globe subject to such interchanges of bird- 
life at different seasons of the year; the avifauna of the great 
continent of Asia, a continent having the loftiest mountains, the 
most elevated plateaux, and the richest forests in the world, is subject 
to similar laws. So, again, if we cross the equator and take a view 
of what occurs in the southern hemisphere, we shall find that a 
precisely similar movement takes place there, but of course at 
opposite seasons, the antipodean summer being coincident with our 
winter. In many instances bird-life is there represented by species of 
a similar form to those we find in our own country, and which evince 
a tendency to a movement north and south at certain periods of the 
year as with us. 
Although in the foregoing remarks I have used the terms migrant 
and migratory in their ordinary acceptation, it will be as well before 
quitting the subject of migration to place before my readers what I 
consider should be the strict meaning of the word migrant. The 
country a bird resorts to for the propagation of its species should be 
regarded as its true habitat: thus the Swallows and others, although 
they pass only half the year in the British Islands, are really not 
migrants in the same sense of the term as that in which we.should 
so regard the Fieldfare and Redwing, who, although resident with us 
during the winter, retire to Norway and other northern regions for 
the purpose of breeding, and who are impelled to visit our country 
solely to obtain the food necessary for their existence. But whilst 
regarding the species visiting us from the north during the winter 
months, such as the Woodcock, Ducks, Fieldfares, Redwings, &c., as 
