Birds by Land and Sea 



ended. From all these circumstances put together, 

 it is more than probable that this lingering flight, at 

 so late a season of the year, never departed from this 

 island. Had they indulged me that autumn with a 

 November visit, as I much desired, I presume that, 

 with proper assistants, I should have settled the 

 matter past all doubt ; but though the third of 

 November was a sweet day, and, in appearance, 

 exactly suited to my wishes, yet not a martin was 

 to be seen, and so I was forced reluctantly to give 

 up the pursuit." 



One cannot but sympathize with the perplexed 

 naturalist in his closing reference to the subject : 

 " I have only to add that, were the bushes, which 

 cover some acres, and are not my property, to be 

 grubbed and carefully examined, probably these late 

 broods, and perhaps the whole aggregate body of the 

 house martins of the district, might be found there 

 in different secret dormitories ; and that, so far from 

 withdrawing into warmer climes, it would appear 

 that they never depart three hundred yards from 

 the village." -So human, so confident, and, withal, 

 upon grounds apparently so sufficient ; and yet so 

 mistaken ! 



Still, it requires little imagination to recognize, 

 even at this distance of time, that to White and his 

 contemporaries migration must have appeared almost 

 as mysterious as the alleged hibernation under water, 

 and even more so than the theory, to which in part 

 he clung to the last, that the birds passed the winter 



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