206 RETURN OF MIGRATING BIRDS, 



but the appearance of our birds of passage is not 

 greatly to be depended upon, as I have reason to 

 apprehend from much observation. They will be 

 accelerated or retarded in the time of their depar- 

 ture by the state of the wind in the country whence 

 they take their flight ; they travel much by night, 

 requiring in many instances the light of the moon 

 to direct them ; and the actual time of their arrival 

 is difficult to ascertain, as they steal into our hedges 

 and copses unperceived. If the weather be bright 

 or warm, their voices are heard ; if gloomy and 

 cold, they will lie secreted till the call of hunger or 

 of love intimates their presence. Though we rarely 

 see these birds in their transits, yet I have at times, 

 on a calm bright evening in November, heard high 

 in the air the redwing and the fieldfare, on progress 

 to a destined settlement^ manifested by the signal 

 notes of some leading birds to their scattered fol- 

 lowers. These conductors of their flocks are cer- 

 tainly birds acquainted with the country over which 

 they travel, their settlements here being no promis- 

 cuous dispersion ; it being obvious that many pairs 

 of birds return to their ancient haunts, either old 

 ones which had bred there, or their offspring. The 

 butcher-bird successively returns to a hedge in one 

 of my fields, influenced by some advantage it de- 

 rives from that situation, or from a preference to 

 the spot where hatched ; but we have perhaps no 

 bird more attached to peculiar situations than the 

 grey flycatcher (muscicapa grisola) ; one pair, or 

 their descendants, frequenting year after year the 



