MIGRATION AND FLIGHT. 83 



A careless observer will probably urge that there is no 

 difficulty in accounting for the periodical journeys and 

 votuges of birds. He will say that it is for the sake of 

 food, no longer to be found in the particular spot in which 

 the bird has been dwelling for a few previous weeks or 

 months ; or, that it is for the purpose of breeding in more 

 favoured situations, or for some other less ostensible cause. 

 But none of these reasons will hold good when closely 

 examined. Is it for the sake of rearing its young that the 

 Woodcock leaves us early in the spring for the marshes or 

 heaths of Norway, when England and Scotland, even now, 

 might provide spots as solitary and appropriate as the most 

 timid bird could desire ? Is it to feed on our comparatively 

 scanty supply of gnats and midges, and other small insects of 

 the air, that a certain number of the Swallow tribes tarry in 

 Britain during the summer season, when Sweden and Norway 

 could provide, in tenfold quantities, insects of this sort for 

 every Swallow, and Martin, and Swifb in Europe? When 

 the Eedwing and Fieldfare quit this country, it often abounds 

 with that food which they prefer to any other, and at the 

 time of their departure they are in the finest condition. Again, 

 the younger birds, in many cases, do not depart at the same 

 time ; and when they do, it has been ascertained that they 

 frequently do not go so far as the old ones. Other birds, 

 again, which in, some places are constantly to be found, will 

 in others disappear for a certain time, and then return without 

 any discoverable cause. Thus, the Kingfisher, which in the 

 northern part of England may be seen all the year round, on 

 some parts of the southern coasts only makes its appearance 

 in October in considerable numbers, and as regularly departs 

 in the following spring. Few would suspect our constant and 

 lively companions, the Jays and Chaffinches, to be at times 

 travellers, but so it is ; there is proof of the fact. 



Some gentlemen near Tunstall, in Suffolk, who were out 

 shooting, about five miles from the sea, observed an extraor- 

 dinary flight of Jays passing in a single line from seaward 

 towards the interior. The line extended further than the eye 

 could reach, and must have consisted of some thousands ; there 



G 2 



