ORDER OF MIGRATION ACCORDING TO AGE AND SEX 111 



pursues its toilsome and lonely journey, with the blue skies above 

 and the blue waters beneath it; and while our eyes follow the 

 lonely traveller, there arises within us the involuntary reflection : 

 How powerful must be the impulse from within, which urges on 

 so abandoned a creature patiently to strive for a goal of which it 

 can scarcely have a presentiment ! 



Although the early and independent autumn migration of the 

 young birds had been hitherto quite withdrawn from recognition, 

 this was by no means the case in regard to the early appearance of 

 old males in spring. The reasons for this difference in the state of 

 our knowledge must be sought for, in both cases, in the nature of 

 the phenomena themselves. At the close of summer all the dif- 

 ferent species of birds not only appear simultaneously in enormous 

 quantities, but in very many of them the autumn plumage varies 

 so little with differences of age, that it is necessary to have the 

 bird actually in one's hands in order to determine to what stage of 

 life it belongs. In spring, on the other hand, the number of 

 migrants which come under observation is in itself a much less 

 considerable one, because, as a rule, one sees almost only such birds 

 as are residents within the area of observation, those belonging to 

 northern or eastern breeding-stations passing overhead unobserved 

 at night; and also because the vanguard of the migratory train 

 consists exclusively of old males, which are not only very easily 

 recognised by the colour of their plumage, but also at once pro- 

 claim their sex and age by their song or their call-notes. 



Naumann, of course, furnishes numerous proofs for what has 

 been said above, one of which has already been mentioned in con- 

 nection with the autumn migration of the Blackbird. Faber states 

 (Life of High Northern Birds, pp. 33 and 114) 1 that in Iceland, as well 

 as in Denmark, the males of song-birds, at least in spring, arrive 

 before the females ; but he doubts whether the same may be the 

 case with waders and natatorial birds. As far as my own experiences 

 go, the first arrivals of Dotterels and Ringed Plovers in Heli- 

 goland are invariably males. Similar observations might be 

 collected from many older works. In more recent times Seebohm's 

 two highly interesting journeys, in 1875, to the mouth of the 

 Petchora, and, in 1877, down the Jenesei, from Jeneseisk to the 

 Arctic Ocean, have shown that in these high latitudes also, the 

 males are the first to arrive in spring. Thus, in regard to the 

 Snow Bunting, the author says (Siberia in Europe, p. 81) : ' When 

 we first met with the flocks of Snow Buntings, we found them to 

 consist principally of males, but as the season advanced the females 

 largely predominated.' 



1 Leben hochnordischer Vtigel, pp. 33 and 114. 



