THE BIRD PROGRAMME 



Distributing the Travellers 



Turtle-doves at this season they are among the 

 latest to arrive, as a rule, though last year I found 

 them home before the end of April travel often 

 by day in small parties of under half a dozen. I 

 watched a party of three or four coming in straight 

 from the sea one May day. They seem to have no 

 doubt about the right way, and fly with straight 

 decision, a hundred yards or so from the ground, at 

 thirty or forty miles an hour. Many of the smaller 

 species of migrating birds probably drop from copse 

 to copse, feeding and resting on their way, till they 

 reach their chosen quarters. 



The habit of birds of passage to return to their 

 last year's haunts is clearly valuable both to birds 

 and men. We want the insect-eaters well distributed. 

 If the birds flooded into England in April and May 

 without a programme for the season, they would not 

 get well distributed. There would be too many 

 here, not enough there. The stronger or higher- 

 spirited it is high spirit, I think, that tells most in 

 bird struggles would drive off their rivals, but this 

 would take time and even spoil the nesting season 

 for many. As it is, there is keen competition, but 

 birds which have already stayed and nested a summer 

 or two in a certain haunt tend to settle there a third 

 or fourth time, and this is a good basis for a speedy 

 and equitable distribution of the travellers all over 

 the land each year. Many have a definite pro- 

 gramme, and this will help those who have not one 



