The spring movements, or the passing out, of birds such as winter in these islands, as all observers on the east coast are aware, is far less in evidence than are those great and continuous inrushes in the autumn, extending over days, weeks, and months, and arresting attention by their very magnitude and persistence. In the vernal movement, or emigration, there is rarely anything to attract notice, for it seldom happens that flights of birds are seen actually leaving the shore; all the chief phenomena probably occurring in the night time, or at such a height as to be invisible to our eyes.
That great movements are in progress is suggested by the larger flights of various species which in the early spring congregate in the coast districts—here one day and gone the next—and having their places taken by other flocks presumably coming from more inland localities, all bent on leaving the country; for it is now a proved fact that, as a rule, birds emigrate from the same section of coast as witnessed their immigration, only in the reverse direction.
In this north-east corner of Lincolnshire, bordering the sea, the most obvious and perhaps the best marked spring movements are in connection with the Thrushes (Turdus). By the end of February, excepting such as are resident and nesting, the
