CHAPTER X. 



MIGRATION IN THE NORTHERN SHIRES. 



WE propose to bring the present volume to a 

 close by a brief review of the more salient 

 features of avine migration in the northern shires, 

 especially as it is presented on the coasts of Lincoln- 

 shire and Yorkshire, and in some of the river-valleys 

 in the south of the latter county. It is perhaps in 

 the migration of birds that comparisons become 

 most pronounced between the avine characteristics 

 of the northern and south-western counties of Eng- 

 land. In the latter area, as we have already pointed 

 out, not only in our volume dealing with the season- 

 flight of British birds, but in another devoted to 

 bird-life in a southern county, migration is almost as 

 remarkable for what it omits as for what it includes; 

 the south-west peninsula of England being singularly 

 poor in migrational phenomena. In the northern 

 shires, on the other hand, the story of migration is 

 unfolded every season in all its wondrous grandeur, 

 and along our eastern sea-board, especially in autumn, 

 birds in uncounted hosts pass to and fro in a way 

 more impressive than any words can tell. Another 

 thing, there is infinitely more local movement amongst 



