THE KING-THRUSH. 283 



in the autumn for warmer climates, in which it spends the 

 winter; and, as is the case with many seasonal^ birds, its 

 migrations on the continent are much more extended than 

 with us, though it is not very rare, in its season, in some 

 parts of the Scotch highlands, and has an original Gaelic 

 name. 



Like the resident thrushes, it avoids the fenny parts of the 

 country ; and it does the same on the continent, as it is rare 

 in Holland and the flat parts of the Netherlands, and along 

 the low sandy shores on the east of the German sea. Hence 

 it comes to us across the channel, and rarely or ever across 

 the eastern sea. Whether these birds migrate over low 

 districts, or prefer hilly ones, such as Normandy, is a point 

 worth attending to in studying the habits of our migratory 

 birds ; because, if they prefer the former countries, we may 

 expect stragglers on the east coast ; but if the latter, we can 

 in general receive them only by the south. The Alps, too, 

 divide the birds in their migrations, by driving them nearer 

 both to the western and the eastern seas. 



Though the ring-thrush is better formed for flight than 

 the resident thrushes, it does not appear to proceed by very 

 long flights, for considerable numbers alight on the shores 

 near the channel in the spring, and remain there for some 

 time to rest and recruit, though they always resort to more 

 inland, or at all events more alpine or upland places, to breed. 

 As they are shy, and betake themselves to the heathy and 

 rocky places, which are not much visited in the early part of 

 the season, the times of their arrival in the different localities 

 in which they breed, have not been so far ascertained as to 

 establish the fact, that all of them make the tour of the 

 country from the channel northward. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that they do. The south-eastern part of England the 

 paradise of the warblers is not well adapted to their habits ; 

 and they range westward into Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland, 



