THE MEADOW PIPIT, 155 



parched and untenable, to fill their place. In temperate 

 climes many birds v/hich migrate are not absolutely 

 compelled to do so by food and weather — the Wagtails, 

 Pipits, and Thrushes, for instance— and therefore I am 

 bold enough to hazard a conjecture that the migrations 

 of birds in temperate regions, though they may in some 

 cases be influenced by food and climate, play an all 

 important part in the delicate and infinite mechanism of 

 Nature's balance. 



