XI 



Aspects of migration in southern South America — Migrants 

 from the northern hemisphere — ^The abundance of bird life 

 — Golden plover — Eskimo curlew — Buff-breasted sandpiper 

 — Glossy ibis — Cow-bird — ^Military starling — Upland plover 

 — ^The beautiful has vanished and returns not. 



IT would not be possible for me to convey to 

 readers whose mental image of the visible world 

 and its feathered inhabitants was formed here 

 in England the impression made on my mind, in my 

 early years in the land of my birth, of the spectacle 

 of bird migration as witnessed by me. They have 

 not seen it, nor anything resembling it, therefore 

 cannot properly imagine or visualise it, however 

 well described. I can almost say that when I first 

 opened my eyes it was to the light of heaven and to 

 the phenomenon of bird migration — the sight of it 

 and the sound of it. For migration was then and 

 there on a great, a tremendous scale, and forced itself 

 on the attention of everyone. Nevertheless, it is 

 necessary for me to say something about it before 

 entering into a relation of certain facts concerning 

 migration which other writers on the subject have 

 failed to observe or else ignored. 



Birds, it is granted, migrate north and south, 

 but here in this northern island, cut off from Europe 



by a comparatively narrow sea, and again by a wider 



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