MIGRATION AND HYBERNATION. 149 



to obtain there. The writer well remembers an 

 extraordinarily high tide on the river Yare in 

 Norfolk, which flooded the marshes some seven 

 or eight miles from the sea. Some four months 

 later, at about Easter-tide, codlings and whitings 

 were being daily captured in the ditches which 

 bounded the various marshes. The water here 

 was almost fresh, yet these salt-water forms when 

 captured were in fine condition, apparently having 

 suffered neither from change of water nor their 

 narrow surroundings. 



The disappearance of an animal from its 

 familiar haunts does not necessarily imply 

 migration to some distant region. Indeed the 

 older naturalists, both lay and professional, com- 

 monly overlooked the phenomena of migration 

 altogether, and believed the sudden disappear- 

 ance of this or that particular animal to be 

 explained by its retirement to some sheltered 

 nook or cranny. This disappearance was more 

 particularly associated with the approach of 

 winter. Many believed that the swallows, for 

 instance, sought shelter from the rigours of this 

 season in sheltered caves or other hiding-places, 

 or even in the mud at the bottom of pools and 

 streams ; and there are most circumstantial 

 accounts extant of eye-witnesses to this strange 

 disappearance, which, needless to say, never 

 happened. In justice, however, to these older 

 observers, it must be remarked that many 

 animals actually do seek retirement at the fall 

 of the year, as witness the bat, squirrel, dor- 

 mouse, bears, snakes, lizards, frogs, fish, and, in 

 short, quite a host of animals. This periodical 



