BRITISH BIRDS IN PLAINS OF INDIA 9 



the earliest birds to arrive in India would take up their 

 winter quarters in the north, and that the later arrivals, 

 finding all eligible residences in the north already 

 occupied, would go farther afield. The only explana- 

 tion of the phenomenon which occurs to me is that the 

 most northerly birds are the first to feel the approach- 

 ing Arctic winter and so are the first to migrate. These, 

 when they arrive in India, find the northern portion of 

 the peninsula too hot for them, so pass on southwards 

 until they come to the places where the temperature is 

 at that season lower. 



This article has already reached an undue length, 

 yet quite a number of birds, more or less common in 

 England and in India, have not been mentioned. On 

 this account I owe apologies to the cuckoo, the stint, 

 the sandpiper, the redshank, the ringed and the Kentish 

 plovers. But the names of these and of eight score 

 others, are they not written in the appendix ? 



