4 
winters of more northern regions deny to them. In addition to this 
true and characteristic migration, our islands are occasionally resorted 
to by certain species which, from some unknown cause, make a move- 
ment from east to west; whilst the pseudo-migration from west to 
east is exemplified in the rarely occurring American forms which 
from time to time have been recorded, and which, blown off from 
their native shore, find in the masses of seaweed, uprooted trees, and 
portions of wreck constantly approaching our coasts through the 
agency of the Gulf Stream, that means of rest and recruitment which 
finally enables a few of them to reach a welcome though far distant 
haven. A remarkable degree of capriciousness, which to me has always” 
appeared mysterious, occurs in the choice of localities affected by 
certain of our migrants: thus the Pied Flycatcher will not rest 
until it has reached the middle and northern counties of England, 
while the Nightingale almost restricts its visit to the southern, eastern, . 
and central ones, never favouring Cornwall with its presence, and 
but rarely going into Devonshire or Wales, or further north than 
Yorkshire or iarhan Again, some species, exemplified in many 
of the Plovers and Sandpipers, make our islands but a halting-place, 
pausing for rest only on their way to unknown and probably far 
distant regions. 
The mysterious law or laws which govern migration must always 
be regarded by the naturalist with the utmost interest. Within our 
own “Yslands hardly a month passes by without the movement of 
some species occurring to remind us of the existence of such 
a principle. In the early spring, before the Wheatear, that earliest of 
our visitors from the sunny south, has arrived, the Fieldfare and Red- 
wing which during the winter have peopled our hedgerows and 
fields, the Geese, Ducks, and numerous wading-bir ds Rrhich have been 
frequenting our broads and rivers, have, in obedience to nature’s 
prompting, commenced a movement northward, en route for localities 
better suited, by their quietude and by the nature of the food found 
there, for the propagation and rearing of their progeny; then, as 
the rays of the life-inspiring sun strike upon our earth with daily 
increasing strength, we begin to welcome in quick succession those 
little feathered arrivals which make the spring and early summer 
seasons of so much enjoyment and anticipation to all true lovers of 
nature. March, besides the Wheatear, brings us the Chiffchaff and 
the Sand-Martin ; April’s earliest days herald in the Swallow, Wry- 
neck and Martin; by the middle of that month the Nightingale has 
made its appearance, together with a host of other sylvan species ; 
soon after, the Cuckoo and Landrail arrive ; and on the joyous First of 
May the latest of all comers, the Swift, the Nightjar, and Flycatcher 
may be looked for. A pause of a few weeks follows; and, repro- 
duction having been accomplished, then commences, as it were, the 
ebb of the great tide of migration. The Swift, which, as we have 
seen, was one of the latest to arrive, is the first to depart ; then the 
Landrail makes good its retreat to the more southern country of 
Africa ; other kinds follow in succession, all hastening to make their 
escape before such changes of climate and natural conditions have 
