INTERNAL MIGRATION. 5 1 



do not leave the country altogether — descend in the autumn 

 to No. I, and there remain till the following spring: among 

 these are the Eiag-ousel and Blackbird, the Pipits, the Titmice, 

 the Alpine Choughs, the Alpine Accentor, and others. Then 

 in the spring the reverse process takes place. As the spring 

 advances up the ' mountain-slopes, which it does slowly, not 

 reaching the highest region of vegetation till June or even 

 July, the birds follow it. Eegion No. i, now peopled by the 

 immigrations from Africa and the Mediterranean, sends on 

 large numbers of its winter birds to region No. 2, where, like 

 the cows and the herdsmen who ascend about the same time, 

 they enjoy cool air and abundance of food in the well-watered 

 pastures. Meanwhile the Snow-finches, the Ptarmigan, and 

 the birds of prey, who have been living during the winter in 

 the lower slopes and woods of region No. 2, retire upwards 

 to breed in the rocks and snowy crevices of No. 3. We can 

 hardly help believing that with all these wonderful provisions 

 of nature for their change of scene and -temperature, these 

 partial migrants of Switzerland must lead a life supremely 

 happy. Man himself and his cattle are partial migrants in 

 the Alps ; and no day is so welcome to the herdsman as that 

 on which the authorities of his commune fix for the first 

 movement of the cows upwards. Bitter indeed has been the 

 disappointment of my old guide, now the happy possessor of 

 two cows, when he has not been able to follow them in their 

 annual migration to the cooler pastures. He could realise the 

 feelings of a caged bird, unable to seek ' fresh fields and pastures 



E 2 



