86 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



under the sky route and saw the last stage of the rush 

 westward, and the return east next day. Certain 

 glimpses of bird travel we can often get inland, in and 

 about the wood, the redstarts singly or in pairs work- 

 ing then* way south at the end of summer, swallows 

 gathering in thick, twittering swarms in September, 

 turtle-doves in parties of half-a-dozen coming quick 

 and decisive from the sea in May ; these are familiar 

 inland scenes in the travels of birds. At the coast we 

 see much more than this in spring and autumn. But 

 unless we live under one of the chief highways of the air, 

 as at Heligoland, or spend time in lighthouses at night 

 during the migration, there is little chance to see 

 twice in a life such a movement of birds as that of 

 December 27 and 28, 1906. The migration was then 

 at its height. The second day saw the beginning of 

 the return journey, and the movement was on the 

 wane before sunset ; not that it was actually done by 

 the end of the second day ; the last loiterers who 

 dropped out of the ranks on the way back may not 

 have all regained their fixed whiter quarters a week 

 later. 



On the first day, when I looked out of the window, 

 I saw birds in flocks and small parties flying due west 

 into the small strip of hilly country which makes the 

 extreme western corner of England. The strip would 

 be scarcely more than sixteen miles long by half as 

 many broad, yet, on the day and night of December 27, 

 it held millions of birds. I believe they roosted that 



