74 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES.* 
92. Migration and Speed of Birds. — In his criticism of my paper on 
“Diving Birds”Mr. Price tells us that in their migrations “young birds are piloted 
by an advance guard of a few old birds,” and that this has “ almost been proved to 
be true.” Can he give us any authority and instances? In the case of something 
like 300 different kinds, with the exception of a single one, the autumn migration 
is begun by young birds from six to eight weeks after leaving their nests. The 
parents do not follow till one or two months later. Cuckoos, which are so singular 
in their habits, are the solitary exception. It is well known that as soon as the 
egg is laid in another bird’s nest the parents go off to other climes. Young 
cuckoos then have to find their way across the seas without the guidance of their 
parents, like almost all other young birds. 
Towards the end of June young starlings begin to migrate, and continue their 
migration till the end of September, when the old ones commence to go, and do 
so till December. There is no mistaking a young starling for an old one in the 
summer months ; and it has been ascertained over and over again that these flocks 
of young starlings have not a single old bird amongst them when going on their 
summer journey. Starlings, when migrating, keep low. I have frequently seen 
them leave our coasts flying close to the surface of the water. Their observation, 
therefore, is not a difficult matter. 
I must differ from Mr. Dixon’s “ Migration of Birds,” cited by Mr. Price, 
which holds the opinion that birds migrate “quite slowly.” In their autumn 
flight some birds do occasionally stop for a short time on their journey, but they 
go in spring to their breeding stations, if possible, in one uninterrupted flight. 
Several kinds of American birds cross the Atlantic to Ireland and the Continent. 
Where can they stop on the way? 
Mr. Millard, in writing about the “ speed of birds” on p. 36, seems perfectly 
flabbergasted at what I have said about the Virginian plover going at the rate of 
from 600 lo 700 miles an hour, and wants to know how this could possibly be calcu- 
lated. H. Gaike, who is my authority, arrives at it in this way. He ascertains 
that the bird does not slop in its migratory flight. He knows where it starts from, 
and where it goes ; and that, like most day birds, it migrates by night ; and he 
considers that no migratory bird that sets out in the evening and flies all night 
continues its flight more than fifteen or sixteen hours at a stretch at the very most. 
The distance between its summer and winter quarters, divided by sixteen, or 
probably much less, gives the rate of flight per hour. 
I cannot follow Mr. Millard in his proposed experiment of a toy steamer in a 
tank of water, or oil. It is far too complicated an affair to throw any certain 
light on the effect of a rarefied atmosphere on the speed of a bird’s flight. There 
would be questions of specific gravities, different displacements and adjustments of 
weights, which would land us in calculations involving the ten-thousandth part of 
a second and addle the brains of ordinary folk like 
Southacre, Swaffharn, Norfolk. Ehmund Thos. Daubkny. 
March, 1904. 
93. Birds singing on the Ground. — With regard to Mr. Parsons’ 
question, “ Is it at all unusual?” I am constantly observing birds and it does 
not seem to me a very common occurrence. A few springs ago I was much 
puzzled by the joyous loud singing of a thrush, very early in the morning close to 
my bedroom window. As there was no tree near, I very quietly crept to the window 
and saw the bird on the ground in the middle of the lawn, in full song. This went 
on morning after morning. I have seen the same thing in the daytime, but 
moving things prevent a long song. 
Last spring a thrush sang its evening hymn regularly on the point of the 
gable of our house, or from the same position on the church, at the east end, 
which is clo.se by, and one evening I surprised it singing at the foot of the stone 
cross over the church porch : its nest was somewhere in the churchyard. I heard 
a skylark singing on the ground for a short time, only a few days ago, and once 
when walking near a field of beans I saw some sitting singing on the top of bean 
stems. I know that the hedge accentor sings on the ground, and have often seen 
and heard it close to my window. M. S. Young. 
