12
THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.
few only were able to fly away, so benumbed and torpid had the
greater part of them become."22
It is not perhaps generally supposed that our winter migrants are
acted upon by exactly the same impulse as those species which pass
our islands in spring and autumn on their long journeys and as those
species which stay with us to breed. It is merely a difference of
breeding quarters, whether nearer the poles or nearer the equator;
the migratory movements are exactly the same, but covering a differ-
ent latitude.
Edwards found some difficulty in accounting for the migrations of
the Fieldfare and Redwing; he fell back on his food theory for
their appearance, but he was forced to abandon it for their departure.
He says, "A convincing proof that these winter emigrants come here
for food, is, because the numbers that appear annually are very dis-
proportionate. In some seasons, when there is a great produce of
hawthorn berries, every bush swarms with them ; when there is a
scarcity, it is remarked, very few of these birds are to be seen in
this country. By this we may suppose that they wander from
country to country, and settle in that only where they find a good
stock of food." But again, "We cannot pretend to determine why
these birds leave us in the spring; nor do we find that any other
naturalist can assign any just reason for their departure. At the time
of their migration one would naturally imagine they would continue
and build their nests with us, as there is no obstacle with respect to
food and climate." A similar position to Gilbert White's, who said
the early departure of the Swift was "one of those incidents in natu-
ral history that not only baffles our researches, but almost eludes
our guesses."
That the abundance or scarcity of Fieldfares and Redwings is
not dependent on food-supply has been well illustrated in this and
last winter. This year there was not a berry on the whitethorns,
as there was no may-bloom, but Fieldfares and Redwings have been
abundant and came early—they certainly found some rose-hips ;
last year berries were common, but the birds were almost entirely
absent. Hard winters here are very destructive to these two species.
I have made numerous extracts from Howard Saunders' "Illustra-
ted Manual of British Birds "—our latest authority—giving the geogra-
phical distribution and normal food of our birds, but the evidence
seems altogether too contradictory to help us much. Starting with
22 "Scenes and Tales of Country Life," by Edward Jesse, p. 171, note.