of the caged Turtle Dove, Nightingale, o r Whitethroat during the period at which, were they free, they
would be leaving our sh o re ; once let that period be passed, their efforts cease, and apparent resignation to
their prison ensues. “ It sometimes happens,” says Mr. R. Gray, “ that Swifts, obeying their unconquerable
instincts, will a t the close o f a stormy season desert their unfledged young, and leave them to perish of
hunger. Late breeds especially are subject to this unnatural desertion. Oftener than once I have seen the
little round sooty faces o f the young ones peering out o f their holes and plaintively crying for food, after
which they have crept back to die. In these very nests, on the return o f another season, the same old birds
have been known to rearrange their building-materials, a few straws being merely laid over the bones o f the
abandoned to receive a new family.”
It is a matter o f surprise to some persons, as indeed it may be to the most astute philosopher, how such
frail little birds as the Chiffchaff and its allies can cross the sea from France o r Portugal without exhibiting
any very apparent signs o f fatigue; yet we know that they do so, and moreover th at a still smaller species,
the Goldcrest (Regtilus crisfatus), effects a much louger passage when crossing the German Ocean in its
migration from the opposite parts o f the Continent. I must not omit to mention, however, th at occasionally
hundreds o f these diminutive birds are'found in an exhausted state in the early morning on the Northumberland
and Norfolk co a sts ; and in support of this I may quote here a very interesting passage from the
work of the late gifted Mr. Selby, which runs th u s :—“ On the 24th and 25th o f October 1822, after a very
severe gale, with thick fog, from the north-east (but veering towards its conclusion to the east and southeast),
thousands of the Goldcrests were seen to arrive upon the seashore and sandbanks o f the Northumbrian
coast, many of them so fatigued by their flight o r perhaps by the unfavourable shift o f the wind, as to be
unable to rise again from the ground ; and great numbers were in consequence caught or destroyed. The
flight must have been immense in number, as its extent was traced through the whole length o f the coasts
o f Northumberland and Durham. There appears little doubt o f this having been a migration from the more
northern provinces of Europe (probably furnished by the pine-forests o f Norway, Sweden, &c.), from the
circumstance o f its arrival being simultaneous with that o f large flights o f the Woodcock, Fieldfare, and
Redwing.”
Woodcocks, we know, generally arrive in fair condition on our north-eastern shores a t dawn, with a wind
that is either easterly o r within a point o r two of that direction; but should the wind shift after their flight
has commenced, the increased muscular effort required lands them on our coast in an exhausted and
emaciated state. Assuming, however, that birds, both great and small, have availed themselves o f a
favourable slant of wind, no great amount o f muscular effort would be requisite, inasmuch as those arriving
from the south will require little more than an hour to cross the Channel, while the passage of the German
Ocean by those coming from the north may occupy a short night*. It is interesting to note that some of
our migrants effect the passage to our shores during the night, and others by d a y : as a rule, it is the small
sylvan birds which come a t the former time, as is evidenced by numbers being found at the base of the
various lighted beacons o f our southern and south-eastern coasts, against which, attracted by the light, they
have flown and killed themselves; the Swallows, the Cuckoo, and the Turtle Dove, on the other band, wing
their way across in broad day-light.
Besides the regular migration o f certain species, a remarkable shifting of locality occurs with others, not
only in our own, but in many other parts of the world, the cause of which is totally unknown. Starlings
are now very abundant in Cornwall, and Missel-Thrushes in Scotland—in which they were formerly not to
be seen. Such interchanges of locality are doubtless occasionally due to alterations in the face of the
country: but this was not the cause in the case o f Cornwall; for no county can have undergone less
alteration ; as it was in the days o f Julius Caesar, so it is now, unless we except the operations of mining,
which naturally only affect the surface o f a district to a small extent. The sudden appearance of Pallas’s
Sandgrouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus) in our islands and on various parts o f the Continent, in 1859-60, must
be in the recollection of every one. This irruption o f a strange bird from the distant country of Siberia,
perhaps from China, was Aery astonishing; and it well illustrates my meaning, which may be further
exemplified by the mention o f two similar occurrences in Australia. In the year 1839 the whole o f the
southern and eastern portion o f that country was suddenly visited by millions o f the little Grass-Parrakeet
(Melopsittacus undulatus) ; and a year o r two later swarms o f a species of Water-hen (Tribonyx ventralls)
spread themselves like a cloud over the Swan-River district, destroying fields o f corn and garden-produce
and committing ravages unheard o f before; and both these species have kept their hold until the present
day, but o f course in much smaller numbers. Although not necessarily bearing upon the precedin»-
* As an evidence that birds are capable of taking very long flights with apparent ease, I may quote a letter to * The Times ’ of
June 27, 1872, which further shows that the electric telegraph has not wholly deprived us of the usefulness of the Carrier Pigeon.
The communication alluded to runs as follows:—
“ S ir ,—The promoters of the system of electric telegraphy insist on its immense superiority over the older plan of pigeon-
dcspatchcs. How far these pretensions are founded on facts is shown by the results of the pigeon-race to Brussels, which started
from the Crystal Palace on Thursday last, when 72 birds were flown at noon. Immediately on their departure I telegraphed to the
secretary of the society whose members had forwarded the birds, announcing their departure. The first birds arrived in Brussels at
5.28 p.m., and the telegram at 5.30 p.m.
“ Another example, and I have done. During the Crimean War the intelligence was conveyed to Colombo, Ceylon, 70 miles
north of Point de Galle, where the ships to India landed their despatches; and the salute fired on the news of the fall of Sebastopol
resulted from information brought by them. The electric telegraph was established, and the pigeon-post abolished. I have recently
been requested to restock Colombo with Belgian “ voyageurs,” as the information brought by the electric wire is neither so speedy
nor so correct as that conveyed by the birds. The Prussians, wise in their generation, have taken lessons from the Parisians, and
established pigeon-posts in Metz and their other fortified towns. In the event of a war in which we may be engaged, what would
be the value of birds that would convey messages to Jersey, Guernsey, &c. when the telegraphic wires had been cut by the enemy!
W. B. TEGETMEIER.”