MIGRATION AND FLIGHT. 
83 
A careless observer will probably urge that there is no 
difficulty in accounting for the periodical journeys and 
voyages of birds. He will say that it is for the sake of 
food, no longer to be found in the particular spot in which 
the bird has been dwelling for a few previous weeks or 
months ; or, that it is for the purpose of breeding in more 
favoured situations, or for some other less ostensible cause. 
But none of these reasons will hold good when closely 
examined. Is it for the sake of rearing its young that the 
Woodcock leaves us early in the spring for the marshes or 
heaths of Norway, when England and Scotland, even now, 
might provide spots as solitary and appropriate as the most 
timid bird could desire ? Is it to feed on our comparatively 
scanty supply of gnats and midges, and other small insects of 
the air, that a certain number of the Swallow tribes tarry in 
Britain during the summer season, when Sweden and Norway 
could provide, in tenfold quantities, insects of this sort for 
every Swallow, and Martin, and Swift in Europe? When 
the Redwing and Fieldfare quit this country, it often abounds 
with that food which they prefer to any other, and at the 
time of their departure they are in the finest condition. Again, 
the younger birds, in many cases, do not depart at the same 
time ; and when they do, it has been ascertained that they 
frequently do not go so far as the old ones. Other birds, 
again, which in some places are constantly to be found, will 
in others disappear for a certain time, and then return without 
any discoverable cause. Thus, the Kingfisher, which in the 
northern part of England may be seen all the year round, on 
some parts of the southern coasts only makes its appearance 
in October in considerable numbers, and as regularly departs 
in the following spring. Few would suspect our constant and 
lively companions, the Jays and Chaffinches, to be at times 
travellers, but so it is ; there is proof of the fact. 
Some gentlemen near Tunstall, in Suffolk, who were out 
shooting, about five miles from the sea, observed an extraor- 
dinary flight of Jays passing in a single line from seaward 
towards the interior. The line extended further than the eye 
could reach, and must have consisted of some thousands ; there 
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