NIGHTINGALE MIGRANTS.
Some singularly absurd theories have been uttered in -reference to the English nightingales recently exported to New Zealand (as others at an earlier date were sent to America). It is suggested that they may find their way back to England by progressive migration ! The nightingale is one of the least dashing of migrants. It is a plausible theory that it is found only in the South and East of England, because it . comes to us across the narrowest part of the Channel and spreads fan-like from Dover or thereabouts, not caring to proceed beyond the Severn on the West. The hope of the New Zealand immigrants is that they may confine their migration to the South island, but the inherent zeal to migrate is very powerful. A now almost classic example is the utter disappearance from Europe of the scores of American " robins " —in reality a species of thrush—that were introduced and bred year after year in Surrey. At the same time some of our native birds do well in the Antipodes. I spent one delightful morning some years ago on the edge of Canberra (then almost a virgin country), watching English goldfinches playing close alongside a white cockatoo in a homestead garden. Many parts of Australia are a paradise of birds. I have never seen so many sorts, of birds within a short space as at the side of a lagoon in Rockhampton in Queensland. •
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