xi Departing Birds : an Epilogue 271 



they were able to fly without apparent effort at a 

 considerable height. The next day the wind was 

 stronger ; and on the third day, if I recollect right, it 

 was very keen and cold, and instead of soaring they 

 changed their tactics and took to skimming low along 

 the steep flanks of the down. From my post of 

 vantage at the top I watched with interest the way 

 in which these delicate little birds withstood and 

 conquered the force of a strong head wind. I can 

 see them even now creeping along the shaggy sun- 

 burnt sides of that noble breezy down, tacking this 

 way and that, now deep in the grassy hollows, now 

 steering swiftly upwards, now yielding to the gale 

 for a moment in a backward curve, but ever steadily 

 pressing onwards. Some preferred a belt of lower 

 ground between the down and the sea ; but I noticed 

 that where this comes to an end and the down itself 

 falls again in precipitous cliffs direct into the waves, 

 they all turned inwards again, hugging the hill, and 

 not venturing to cross even a mile or two of sea 

 to the further arm of the bay in the face of such 

 a wind. 



All this was so interesting that I wondered that 

 I had never observed the same thing during previous 

 visits to Lulworth in September. Diaries kept during 

 those visits were at hand, but showed no trace of any 

 such migration. Possibly I had missed the exact 

 days on which the birds were passing; but it is 



