264 NOVEMBER 



and the green weed blades will wet the wings of young 

 partridges running down the else-open corridors of 

 upright straw, the wheat will win, even if it grow &quot; win 

 ter proud,&quot; and be grazed by sheep (as well as partridges) 

 to suppress its excess of vigour. 



4- 



This autumn observers on the coast of Norfolk had an 

 experience entirely new in their records. One morning 

 the coast was found to be populous with robins. They 

 were in hundreds, perhaps thousands, but not strictly 

 speaking in flocks. The robin is a solitary bird, singu 

 larly ungregarious, and all this host was composed of 

 birds that had been influenced, not by any herd instinct, 

 not by a mutual, but by a common stimulus. The poor 

 things were in great distress, and a large number died 

 soon after they reached our shores* Little, emaciated 

 bodies were picked up on the seashore and just inland ; 

 and the living birds were tame with the tameness of 

 weakness and fatigue rather than native courage. One 

 day the live birds were found in every other tussock and 

 bush. The next day they were all gone. They had 

 struggled southwards and inland, leaving a trail of those 

 who had fallen out. The specialists at South Kensington 

 averred that the bodies belonged to the Continental 

 variety which differs slightly it seems to most of us very 

 slightly in the colour of the plumage. 



This migration of robins, coming south-west out of 

 Scandinavia across the North Sea, was unprecedented, at 

 any rate in its suddenness, completeness, and earliness of 

 date ; but it was also characteristic of the region. For 

 certain sights and those even of the most curious in our 

 natural history you must frequent the East Coast, which 



