British Birds. 259 



learned. Europe contains a fair proportion of the great 

 total. So does old England individually. The Rev. F. 

 O. Morris, in his six well-known volumes, the first of 

 which is dated 1863, describes and figures no fewer than 

 three hundred and fifty-eight, or about a thirtieth of the 

 whole number, which, very curiously, is just about the 

 same proportion as that of the inhabitants of the British 

 Islands to the aggregate of the world in general. In 

 this list are included the genuine Ancient Britons, the 

 aborigines, the birds that never go away, hence called 

 "Permanent Residents;" the migratory birds, or such as 

 come for awhile in summer or winter, hence called 

 "Periodical Visitors;" and, thirdly, the vagrants, the 

 lost, and the adventurous, collectively called "Casuals." 

 The introduction of the last-named, though legitimate, 

 gives, it must be confessed, a certain deceptiveness to 

 the figures. In the whole range of natural history there 

 is no fact more interesting than that birds, in their airy 

 voyages, often wander inconceivably far from home, so 

 that in all countries solitary examples of different kinds 

 are met with in turn, not one of them perhaps ever revisit- 

 ing that particular spot. Well may the poets, that is to 

 say, the philosophers, find in birds the representatives 

 and emblems of human thought, which, as we all know, 

 travels inimitably. To give these casuals, however, a 

 place in the catalogue commensurate with that of the 

 aborigines, the birds residing in the country all the year 

 round, or even with that of the established visitors, 

 which, like the cuckoo, never forget their appointed 



