276 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



doubtful whether cold alone be sufficient to drive 

 birds from their northern haunts. Fieldfares and 

 red-wings, no doubt, leave the northern parts of Eu- 

 rope at the end of autumn, because at that period 

 the ground begins to be covered with snow, so that 

 they are unable any longer to procure food; but 

 they merely shift, so as to place themselves on the 

 limits of the storm, their object being apparently 

 more to obtain the necessary supplies, than to evade 

 the cold. In mild and open winters they remain in 

 our country until late in spring ; whereas, after snow 

 has continued several weeks on the ground, it is 

 seldom that any are to be seen. As to swallows, it 

 is evident that the same cause operates most power- 

 fully on them, because, as we have seen, they are 

 capable of bearing as much cold as other small 

 birds. 



How far the migrations of our summer visitants 

 may extend, has not, we believe, been yet settled in 

 any one instance with a satisfactory degree of pre- 

 cision. In the beginning of April the stork arrives 

 in small flocks in Holland, where it is sure to meet 

 with an hospitable reception, and where it returns 

 year after year to the same chimney-top. In the 

 beginning of August, when the young are fully 

 fledged, it prepares for its departure, multitudes 

 assembling from the surrounding districts, and chat- 

 tering with their bills, as if in mutual congratulation. 

 At length, on the appointed night, the whole band 

 mount into the higher regions of the air, and pursue 

 their southward course, until they alight among the 

 marshes of northern Africa, and especially Egypt, 

 where they have been seen in the winter. 



On the subject of the migration of storks we may 

 quote the following anecdote, which appeared lately 

 in several public journals : 



44 Lust year (1833) a Polish gentleman having 



