7 JANUARY 1949, Page 19

Homely Migrants One small fact in bird migration seems to

have been brought out by recent enquiries ; the hosts of birds coming into this island from the north shove in front of them rather more of our own birds than was once thought. Our blackbirds and our more green-backed native starlings move further south across the sea about the time when the more purple type of starling and the fieldfares and redwings flood in from the north. Even robins, the most, home-loving of birds in general, may be migrant. Certainly considerable numbers in some years land, often in very poor shape, along the east coast. The specialist can distinguish them.