MIGRATION AND FLIGHT. g| 



with it as migration, to which we have already briefly alluded ; 

 for certainly there is no instinct which seems to act npon them 

 more forcibly, or which after all is so deeply involved in 

 mystery. 



A careless observer will probably urge that there is no diffi- 

 culty in accounting for the periodical journeys and voyages of 

 birds. He will say that it is for the sake of food, no longer 

 to be found in the particular spot in which the bird has been 

 dwelling for a few previous weeks or months ; or, that it is for 

 the purpose of breeding in more favoured situations, or for 

 some other less ostensible cause. But none of these reasons 

 will hold good when closely examined. Is it for the sake of 

 rearing its young that the Woodcock leaves us early in the 

 spring for the marshes or heaths of Norway, when England 

 and Scotland, even now, might provide spots as solitary and 

 appropriate as the most timid bird could desire ? Is it to feed 

 on our comparatively scanty supply of gnats and midges, and 

 other small insects of the air, that a certain number of the 

 Swallow tribes tarry in Britain during the summer season, 

 when Sweden and Norway could provide in tenfold quantities 

 insects of this sort for every Swallow and Martin and Swift 

 in Europe? When the Redwing and Fieldfare quit this 

 country, it often abounds with that food which they prefer to 

 any other, and at the time of their departure they are in the 

 finest condition. Again, the younger birds, in many cases, do 

 not depart at the same time ; and when they do, it has been 

 ascertained that they frequently do not go so far as the old 

 ones. Other birds, again, which in some places are constantly 

 to be found, will in others disappear for a certain time, and 

 then return without any discoverable cause. Thus, the King- 

 fisher, which in the northern part of England may be seen all 

 the year round, on some parts of the southern coasts only makes 

 its appearance in October in considerable numbers, and as 

 regularly departs in the following spring. Few would suspect 

 our constant and lively companions, the Jays and Chaffinches, 

 to be at times travellers, but so it is ; there is proof of the fact. 



Some gentlemen near Tunstall, in Suffolk, who were out 



