THE BIRDS OF NORTH KENT. 107 
the fact that most of the actual movements take place at night. 
To the man who is an ornithologist, but most of whose time is 
tied to other matters, it is hardly possible to give that consecutive 
attention which is required to add further definite knowledge as 
to the how or the why of the movements of these bird travellers. 
But if he can find a day to spare during September or October 
he may at least manage to get a sight of some of the pas- 
sengers, although he has to draw his bow at a venture, and to 
depend to a great extent on his good luck as to what species he 
may see. 
The best part of England for observing these passages of 
birds seems to be the north or north-east coast of Norfolk, 
evidently because it lies close to the line of flight taken by many 
of the travellers who, if they meet with a check from adverse 
winds or any other cause, alight on the land nearest them, where 
the morning light reveals them to dwellers in the neighbourhood. 
But there are other parts where to a certain extent, though in a 
lesser degree, the same thing takes place, and one such spot is 
that part of the coast of Kent which borders the estuary of the 
Thames, more especially the easterly and most seaward portion 
of it. The place generally chosen by the writer is an exposed 
spit of land near the mouth of the Thames, whence you may 
look, if you are so inclined, right away to the hazy distances 
of the German Ocean. At this spot small parties of dallying 
travellers often stop for a day’s rest before continuing their 
journey to the south. The flat meadow land stretches back to 
the rounded Kentish uplands. The last ricks of corn are being 
thatched. In places mysterious looking crops of plants grown 
for seed are still being harvested. And the newly thatched stacks 
standing in rows around every homestead appear to tell a tale of 
a good harvest having been garnered. 
On the borders of the upland you have already come across 
a sign of autumn in a large flock of some two hundred Ringed 
Plovers (4igialitis hiaticola) gathered on a fallow. By contrast 
with the brown of the soil the backs of these little birds look 
almost blue-grey. When they rise and fly their note and the 
black band across the white breasts distinguish them. The flight 
of a serried phalanx of small waders is a difficult thing to 
describe. The eye follows them, held by the momentary expecta- 
