ORNITHOLOGICAL BEPOBT FOR NORFOLK. 203 



■well known, and one reason for it has been supposed to be 

 to escape the attacks of other and larger birds ; but this is 

 an altogether insufficient explanation of the matter. A far 

 better solution of it has been assigned by Mr. W. E. Clarke, 

 ■which is that the day-tirne is the period during which birds take 

 their food. At night they are not accustomed to require it, and 

 consequently their powers of abstinence are greater in the hours 

 of darkness (' Studies in Bird Migration,' i, p. 22). 



Occasionally migrants come in very tired, but for the most 

 part they are wonderfully little exhausted, according to my 

 experience. Crossing the North Sea would be a journey of about 

 four hundred miles, but it is not likely that the majority start 

 from the Dutch or German coast. 



Their flight may begin several degrees further inland than 

 that, and yet when they reach England they may be seen still 

 going on. 



Sometimes large flocks of Chaffinches, even as many as five 

 hundred together (before they have broken up), may be seen on 

 an oat- or barley-stubble near Cromer, in October, so close to 

 the cliff as to suggest that they had come over during the night. 



But this is less remarkable than the number of Thrushes to 

 be flushed in that month in turnip-fields. The Song-Thrush 

 must receive a vast accession of numbers in October and the 

 early part of November, for in those months the well-grown 

 fields of swedes and mangold near Cromer, and all along 

 Norfolk's rounded coast, often swarm with them, mingled with 

 Blackbirds and a sprinkling of Eedwings. 



Migration is a fascinating subject, but there are several phases 

 of it which we have not got to the bottom of by a long way. It is 

 a study in which speculation is easy, but facts are by no means so 

 easy to come by, and when attained sometimes quite reverse 

 expectation. One thing which is unaccountable is that so little 

 should be seen, especially in Norfolk and on the east coast, of the 

 many migratory birds on their return journey northwards and east- 

 wards in March and April. Where are then the Thrushes and 

 Blackbirds, of which such vast numbers were to be seen in October ? 



Where are the hosts of Skylarks, Eedwings, Starlings, 

 Linnets, Bramblings, and Chaffinches ? There can be but three 

 explanations. Either they are dead — or they pass over Norfolk 



