NOVEMBER 259 



XLV 



The unusual numbers of fieldfares (1901) bodes trouble 

 should this winter prove a hard one, for seldom Bird, 

 have I seen such a poor store of winter berries. Mieration 

 It is quite the exception this year to see a holly or a haw- 

 thorn bearing a decent crop, at least in this district ; and 

 greatly the fieldfare relies on such provender. Not so 

 much, however, as his cousin the redwing, of all birds the 

 first to suffer in seasons of scarcity. Redwings die in 

 hundreds in severe weather, of hunger, not of cold; for 

 birds, albeit they always go barefoot, are strangely tolerant 

 of cold. (Remember this, ye over-thoughtful ones who 

 hang your woodland captives in cages on a brick wall ' to 

 enjoy the sun ' !) Curiously enough, though fieldfares so 

 greatly abound, I do not recollect having seen a single 

 redwing this season. Yet both species are Scandinavian 

 breeders, and fare hither in winter in quest of similar food. 

 It almost seems as if the redwing intelligence department 

 had received notice of a shortage of berries in Britain, and 

 had steered their course accordingly. 



How little we know as yet of the influences, the 

 motives, the aims of bird-migration. With its grosser 

 phenomena we are fairly familiar, thanks to the late 

 Heinrich Gatke and the statistics furnished by intelli- 

 gent lighthouse-keepers. Perhaps it is our ignorance 

 that makes so conspicuous the failure of our attempts to 

 acclimatise foreign species. I care not to reckon how 

 many of my ' saxpences ' have gone bang ! with nothing 

 to show for them. My spoonbills flew to other meres, 

 and were shot by excited field-naturalists; my purple 

 water-hens, lovely creatures, strayed to the stubbles, and 



