MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS. 



(Reprinted from "The FieU" Newspaper, Sept., 1866.) 



CAN any of your readers tell us about the migrations of the Knot, 

 Common Godwit, Grey Plover, Sanderling (and even the Dunlin, 

 though it differs from the others in breeding commonly in some 

 parts of our Island) ? All these species arrive early in autumn 

 on our coasts, indeed, as early as the young can fly well ; and 

 although, except the Dunlin, none of the others breed beyond 

 the limits of the arctic circle, I have had the young of them 

 all, with a portion of the down that they got on being hatched 

 still adhering to parts of the body. From the time the young 

 birds arrive, these species are met with in greater or less num- 

 bers, sometimes in vast quantities, during the whole winter, 

 braving the severest weather; but no sooner has the earliest 

 spring appeared, than by far the greater portion of them leave 

 our shores entirely before commencing to get their summer plu- 

 mage. Now, we should expect that, as spring comes, they would 

 repair towards their breeding grounds. But do they ? What I 

 wish to know is where they spend the time that elapses between 

 March and their appearance in May, when they arrive in greater 

 or less numbers on various parts of our coast every year, many of 

 them in their full summer plumage. I think their appearance 

 in May is when they are actually on their way to their breeding 

 grounds, as, if they arrive at them by the middle of June, they 

 would be early enough for the situation, and still have sufficient 

 time to rear young, which would be in the state we find them in 

 early in September. We should expect, if they did not appear 

 again later in the season, that they had gone further north, and 

 were nearing their breeding grounds as the weather became 

 milder; but their later appearance in their breeding plumage 

 renders this supposition unlikely. But where do they all spend 

 the time they are undergoing the change of plumage and are 

 absent from us that is, if they are the same flocks which win- 



