II. DIRECTION OF THE MIGRATION 

 FLIGHT 



TURNING now from this general view of Migration to the various 

 separate factors of the movement, the attention of an observer is 

 attracted, first and foremost, by the direction in which the hordes 

 of wanderers pursue their course. The whole process appears to 

 be simple enough so long as the inquiry is not pushed beyond the 

 horizon of the place of observation. When, however, one attempts 

 to pursue the path of the wanderers to its goal, the problem often 

 assumes an apparently insoluble aspect more especially so in the 

 case of the autumn migration, by which the birds are conducted 

 from their breeding homes to their generally far distant winter 

 quarters. The course of the spring migration, on the other hand, 

 is a very simple one. 



A large portion of the migrants travel within an east- to- west, 

 another within a north-to-south, line of flight. Species which fail to 

 find satisfactory winter quarters in the western countries of Europe, 

 on arriving in these districts, deviate from their westerly course 

 and pursue their journey in a southward direction. Those, on the 

 other hand, whose autumn migration takes place in a southerly 

 direction, persevere in their course from their breeding stations to 

 the end of their journey, though some may make a more or less 

 considerable deviation to the east. 



The predominant mode in which the migratory movement is 

 performed is in a broad front, or migration-column, which, in the 

 case of species migrating to the west, corresponds to the latitudinal 

 range of their breeding area, and in those migrating southwards, to 

 the longitudinal extent of their nesting stations. The view, much 

 discussed in recent years, that migrants follow the direction of 

 ocean coasts, the drainage area of rivers, or depressions of valleys 

 as fixed routes of migration, can hardly be maintained. Too many 

 facts are directly at variance with this assumption. One of the 

 most salient only that of the flight of Richard's Pipit may be 

 cited here a bird whose breeding home is further removed from 



