xvn LETTERS TO MARCO 109 



should not birds be fond of each other's com- 

 pany, or take advantage of the safety that is 

 found in numbers ? Your newspaper corre- 

 spondent forgets that packing takes place in 

 autumn, when food is plentiful, each species 

 of bird naturally flocking to the places where 

 its peculiar food most abounds, and when 

 many birds of a partial migratory character 

 naturally assemble for departure. 



The young broods, when their first home 

 is broken up, most naturally keep together 

 with their seniors, so as to take advantage 

 of their experience. During their infancy 

 they have to be fed on a very different 

 diet to that which is afterwards their usual 

 food, and it is for this purpose that the 

 parent birds, when the breeding season comes 

 round, separate and break up their usual 

 societies, and each selects some suitable 

 locality in which the peculiar and necessary 

 food abounds. I have seen many thousands 

 of larks flying overhead in one long continual 

 stream, taking a south-westerly course at the 



