OUR THRUSHES. 91 



profusion. The white - throated blackbird of the 

 moors has a good table spread for him, that is why 

 he stays here for a time before 'he returns to the 

 lands which he left, to come up to higher ground. 

 To the rustic dwellers of the moors and hillside 

 he is a bird of great interest : I have never known 

 one of them shoot or trap him : I believe it is "the 

 white strap round his neck," as they term it, that 

 saves him. It may not be that alone : his visits are 

 irregular and mysterious ; at least so they seem to 

 the simple country folks, who, although they are 

 usually familiar with the habits of the creatures 

 that live near them, do not understand the varying 

 influences that at times affect the migrating move- 

 ments of birds. In spite of the light that has been 

 thrown on the subject by the keepers of lighthouses 

 round the coast of Great Britain who have, at the 

 request of some of our zealous ornithologists, saved 

 one wing of each species that, being attracted by the 

 light, had struck against the glass or been captured 

 fluttering round the lighthouse this varying in the 

 migrating habits of the birds remains a vexed ques- 

 tion with the most earnest students in natural his- 

 tory. In spite, too, of the statement in Holy Scrip- 



