Several correspondents of the Times have been noticing during - the
severe weather of last week great migrations of birds, especi- ally of larks. Two correspondents, one at Brighton and one at Havant, declare that these birds go in great flocks westwards .along the coast,—in search of a better climate. But a third says that in North-East Lincolnshire he observed great flights going on all day in a direction from N.N.W. to S.S.E. "I tried it," he says, " with the compass, and found they never de- viated from this course." Now as the coast of Lincolnshire trends from N.N.W. to S.S.E., this indicates simply, we suppose, that the larks were coasting southwards there, as they were coasting westwards at Brighton ; and as the date on which he observed this was the 11th December, while the Brighton corre- spondent observed the phenomenon on the 17th December, and the Havant correspondent says that he had been observing it for four days on the 22nd, it would seem very likely that the larks are circumvolating England to find a better climate without venturing across the Channel,—perhaps hitherto in vain. Let us hope that if they do not find what they want by the time they get to Devonshire and Cornwall, they will be too wise to continue the experiment by turning north again.
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