BIRD-MIGRATION 3 



the folly of his ancestors in connecting the flight of 

 birds with coming events, than a new significance 

 begins to dawn, and the phenomena of migration 

 are found shedding light on the remote past of the 

 globe. Excluding grouse, partridges, pheasants, the 

 cock-sparrow aforesaid, and a few a very few 

 others, the rest of the species in the British list, 

 numbering less than four hundred all told, are 

 known now to occupy different latitudes in summer 

 and in winter. Even blackbirds and thrushes, 

 robins and wrens, commonly regarded as part of 

 the permanent furniture of an English garden, are 

 almost as regular migrants as the swallows, cuckoos, 

 and woodcocks, and have been proved to stream 

 across the sea in vast numbers in spring and autumn, 

 though probably a few individuals remain behind. 

 It is quite true that many kinds of bird may be 

 seen in certain parts of the British Isles in every 

 month in the year. Take curlews, golden plover, 

 and lapwing, for instance. It would be a mistake 

 to suppose that the individuals of these species 

 haunting our moors in July form any part of the 

 flocks frequenting the estuaries in December. The 

 plover seen in England in January were bred in 

 latitudes far north of ours ; some of them, no doubt, 



