80 
Society with this account of it; hut I will give huo instances 
of information acquhed by its means which was entirely 
unexpected. 
The very first autumn we tried the plan, (that of 1849,) we 
found, to our great surprise, that the Song-Thrush, after being 
unusually abundant in September and the hegimiing of October, 
about the middle of that month began to grow scarce, until, by 
the end of November, hardly one was left ; and so passed on some 
ten weeks, when, at the end of January or beginning of February, 
the species reappeared. Succeeding years confirmed the observa- 
tion and I was finally enabled to announce {Ihis, 18G0, pp. 83,85) 
the unlooked-for fact that with us the Song-Thrush was one of the 
most regular migrants among birds — a fact which although AveU 
known on the continent, had been neglected by almost every 
English historian of the species. We found the most convenient 
way of counting the individual Thrushes we saw to be by trans- 
ferring from one coat pocket to another a common gun-wadding. 
As shooting-coats have usually many pockets, the process was not 
difficult ; and it was even possible to appropriate a pocket to each 
of the three species we wished to number. It will of course be 
understood that the same bu’d might be counted over again — but 
for the sake of comparison — one week with another, this did not 
signify. 
Another fact — small, perhaps, but extremely suggestive, wliich 
I believe has never been publicly mentioned — we were also enabled 
by our “Eegister” to ascertain; and, like the last, it relates to one 
of the commonest and most familiar of bu’ds. At the settin"-hi 
O 
of a sharp frost it is to be noticed — as no doubt it has been 
noticed before — that the Eedbreast suddenly becomes much more 
abundant in the neighbourhood of houses and gardens. But from 
repeated observations we found, what I think has not been re- 
marked, that this abundance is caused by the birds, which com- 
monly frequent plantations, hedgerows, and other places at a 
distance from human habitations, pressing toward the homesteads. 
The domestic birds remain in their usual haunts ; but, if the cold 
continues, the strangers seem to migrate further— at all events they 
disappear ; yet a few days’ thaw wdl bring them back, Now, 
here, I think, we have what we may call the “ premonitory symp- 
toms” of a regular migration, and further investigation by the 
