96 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



frost bound places; the line so orderly in aim and 

 animus, though with no word of command to dress 

 and drive it growing longer and denser in each mile 

 of progress. 



So much for the journey out. The return, though 

 marked from the start by the same straight aim and 

 confidence, was more leisurely; for, as we saw, many 

 of the travellers would drop at promising points 

 among the sand dunes and feed there, to join the 

 line again a little later in the day. I imagine that 

 the return may have been as follows : The line, as it 

 progressed east and, later, perhaps north gradually 

 thinned, dropping a party here, a party there, many 

 of the travellers settling down once more in the winter 

 quarters they chose when they reached England in 

 the autumn. Only in this way, it seems, can there be 

 that nice distribution which is a feature of bird life 

 between the migrations. The winter bird traveller, 

 like the spring one, commonly, I believe, returns to 

 its known and chosen place. So the redwings and 

 fieldfares, that come hundreds of miles west, would go 

 back hundreds of miles east ; and those that only 

 joined the line as it passed over, say, Dorset or Wilt- 

 shire, would, on the return journey, drop out as they 

 saw their winter home lying beneath. 



It is a flaw in migration that the travellers have 

 little weather wisdom. Many wild creatures may be 

 more sensitive than we to changes immediately im- 

 pending. Electricity in the air may sometimes flash 



