AUG. MIGRATORY BIRDS — BUTTERFLIES. 267 



of the kingdom, as if in readiness to depart. The 

 wheatears almost entirely leave the wild rocky 

 mountains of the North, where they breed, and are 

 during this month caught in great numbers on the 

 Southdowns of Sussex. 



The regularity of the appearance and disappear- 

 ance of birds in different districts is one of the most 

 striking and interesting parts of their history, and is 

 a subject worthy of more attention than it has 

 hitherto received. It is well known to many sports- 

 men that woodcocks appear in certain woods and 

 even under certain holly bushes, or other favourite 

 spots, on the same day of the same month year after 

 year, and in like manner and with equal punctuality 

 do numberless smaller birds, of less notoriety and 

 of less consequence to the sportsman, make their 

 annual flittings northwards or southwards. On re- 

 ferring to notes which I have made during several 

 years, I find that I have seen many migratory birds 

 for the first time in each year, on either the very 

 same day of the month or within one day of it. 



Even in the insect world the same punctuality in 

 their change of abode is kept up, and an observant 

 " out-of-door " entomologist will tell almost to a day 

 when any particular moth or butterfly will first 

 appear. The exclusiveness of some butterflies as to 

 their locality is a very striking peculiarity of this 



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