6 OXFOED : AUTUMN AND WINTER, 



Every autumn brings us a considerable immigration of birds 

 that have been absent during the summer, and increases the 

 number of some species who reside with us in more or less 

 abundance all the year. Among these latter is the familiar 

 Eobin. In the autumn of 1884 the Kev. F. O. Morris wrote to 

 the Times from Yorkshire asking what had become of the 

 Eobins, at the very time when the increase of the Eobin 

 population was a matter of general notice all over the south and 

 west of England. It does not seem that they come to us in 

 great numbers from foreign shores, as do many others of our 

 common birds at this time of the year ; but they move north- 

 wards and southwards within our island, presumably seeking 

 always a moderately warm climate. At Parsons' Pleasure 

 I have seen the bushes literally alive with them in October and 

 November, in a state of extreme liveliness and pugnacity. This 

 is the great season of their battles. Most country-people know 

 of the warfare between the old and young Robins, and will 

 generally tell you that the young ones kill their parents. The 

 truth seems to be that after their autumnal moult, in the 

 confidence of renewed strength the old ones attack their 

 offspring, and succeed in forcing them to seek new homes. This 

 combativeness is of course accompanied by fresh vigour of song. 

 Birds will sing, as I am pretty well convinced, under any kind 

 of pleasant or exciting emotion — such as love, abundance of food, 

 warmth, or anger ; and the outbreak of the Eobin's song in autumn 

 is to be ascribed, in part at least, to the last of these. Other 

 reasons may be found, such as restored health after the moult, or 

 the arrival in a warmer climate after immigration, or possibly even 



