MIGRATION. 



45 



Order of 

 migration. 



direction the birds were flying like a swarm of bees, and every few seconds one flew against 

 the glass. All the birds seemed to be flying up wind, and it was only on the lee-side of 

 the light that any birds were caught. They were nearly all Sky-Larks, but in the heap 

 captured I saw one Redstart and one Reed-Bunting. The air was filled with the warbling 

 cry of the Larks ; now and then a Thrush was heard, and once a Heron screamed as it 

 passed by. The night was starless and the town was invisible ; but the island looked like 

 the outskirts of a gas-lighted city, being sprinkled over with lanterns. Many of the Larks 

 alighted on the ground to rest, and allowed the Heligolanders to pass their nets over them. 

 About three o'clock in the morning a heavy thunderstorm came on with deluges of rain, 

 and a few breaks in the clouds revealed the stars. The migration came to an end, or 

 continued above the range of our vision, and, we will hope, above the reach of the 

 tempest. 



There are one or two curious and interesting facts connected with the order in which 

 birds migrate. The migration of each species lasts about a month, but in autumn it is not an 

 uncommon thing to see a straggler or two arrive before the regular period of migration is due. 

 These ar ant- courier es arrive in various stages of plumage, loaf about on our shores in a 

 desultory manner for a few days, and then disappear. Some of them are in summer 

 plumage, some in winter dress, whilst others are in a transition stage, moulting as they 

 migrate They are supposed to consist of barren birds, odd birds who have been unable 

 to find a mate, or birds whose nests have been destroyed too late in the season to allow a 

 second nest to be made. Having nothing else to do, the hereditary instinct to migrate 

 not being checked by the parental instinct, they yield to its first impulses and drift 

 southwards before the main body of the species. This apparently premature migration has, 

 however, its uses. When the period of migration of any species really begins, astounding 

 as the fact is, it is nevertheless true that the birds of the year are the first to migrate, birds 

 which of course have never migrated before. These birds have inherited from their parents P ureIlts - 

 an irresistible impulse to migrate, but there is no reason to suppose that they have also 

 inherited an infallible knowledge of the road. It may take them years to learn the various 

 landmarks necessary to keep them from straying from the route; but they are doubtless 

 led by some of the av ant- courier es, of which mention has been made. By the time that 

 the birds of the year have left, which may roughly be stated at a week, the males have 

 finished their autumnal moult ; and the second week of the migration of any species generally 

 marks the passage of the males ; most of the females migrate during the third week ; whilst 

 the fourth week is devoted to the cripples, which come straggling in as best they may, in an 

 almost ludicrous manner — birds which have lost a leg or some of their toes, birds with half 

 a tail, or a great hole in one wing, birds with one mandible abnormally long, or with some 

 other defect. In spring the order is slightly varied, the adult males come first, then the adult Order of 

 females, who are followed by the birds of the year, though many of these, presumably those migration in 

 which are hatched late, or from some other cause, are less precocious than the rest, stop * D " 



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