12 



increase, the culmination, the decrease, the rear-guard and the end 

 of the phenomenon as shown by the General map of the 5903 

 stations of the year 1898 (v. annexed Tab. I; and II VIII the 

 day maps showing the beginning on March 10 th and end on 

 May 2 nd ). 



The great lesson drawn from this by no means easy work 

 was, for Hungary at least, that, as far as the chimney-swallow is 

 concerned, there can be no talk of either broad front or of defined 

 routes of migration, but that the settling of an area is very 

 similar to the action of the sower who scatters the seed with 

 his hand. Probably under the influence of sexual impulse some 

 individuals rushed on in advance, but an evident successive pushing 

 on till the northern alps took place only after culmination, 

 towards April 23 rd . 



A 



Fig. 1. 



On the ground of this observation, Hungary was, in 1899, 

 divided into four migration areas shown on the annexed map IX 

 and the schema of the map Fig. 1. - with the distribution 

 of the four migrational regions: 

 I. Plain, earliest arrival. 

 II. Transdanubian district, early arrival. 



III. Transylvanian plateau, later arrival. 



IV. Northern Alps, latest arrival. 



This division of the country has held good in every respect 

 and yields a fair basis for combinative treatment. Of the whole 

 method only the mean data from the zones will have to be elimi- 



