208 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
species and even the sexes keeping distinct: this shows arrange- 
ment, a plan, a special course of procedure—a preparation for the 
great event shortly to come off. That birds too, under certain 
circumstances, should delay their flight waiting for a more favour- 
able wind, shows a high degree of intelligence. 
An experience of more than twenty years close observation of 
the habits and manners of birds, more particularly in connection 
with their annual migrations, has led me to the conclusion that 
they not only possess far more intelligence than we usually give 
them credit for, but also know how to make the best use of this 
intelligence. They do not move in a groove, and are not the mere 
blind subjects of a great mundane law which Mr. Rowley would 
seem to infer. 
It is a well-established fact that the same birds, both during the 
vernal and autumnal migration, do return in a great number of 
instances to the same place. The cases indeed recorded are so 
numerous that I have difficulty in making a selection. The 
well-known fact of a Wagtail’s nest being built year after year in 
a particular place, and of a Cuckoo laying her eggs in that nest 
almost year by year, is one instance. Perhaps, however, the 
most remarkable case is that mentioned by Mr. Stevenson (‘ Birds 
of Norfolk,’ vol. ii., p. 55), and previously recorded by Mr. 
Hewitson (‘ Eggs of British Birds, vol. i., p. 209), on the authority 
of Professor Newton, of a pair of Stone Curlews continuing to 
resort, year after year, to nest in one particular place (though it 
was entirely changed in character), long after it, and many acres 
around it, was planted with trees, and had become the centre of a 
flourishing wood—namely, the Warren Wood of Elveden, near 
Thetford, which extends over more than three hundred acres. 
In Professor Newton’s new edition of Yarrell (p. 565, note), 
another curious instance is given in the case of several pairs 
of the Yellow Wagtail (Molacilla Rati) returning year by year 
to nest in the same haunts, some heathery mounds bordering 
a stretch of wet meadows on the left bank of the Little Ouse, 
below Thetford. The whole passage may be commended to the 
reader’s notice. 
At the Ashby decoy, Lincolnshire, a particularly marked duck, 
having a white throat, was known to come in eight winters in 
succession, and another, a spotted duck, for four or five years. 
These, and numbers of other cases, which time and space will not 
