localities are none too plentiful and often limited in extent, the area
occupied by each individual is necessarily small--if it were not so the
species would become extinct. Hence it is a simple matter to study the
routine of the different individuals and to mark the extent of their
wanderings.
In this way the males of all the Warblers that breed commonly in Great
Britain establish themselves, each one in its respective station at the
respective breeding ground; so, too, do those of many other
migrants--for example, the Whinchat, Wheatear, Tree-Pipit, and Red-backed
Shrike. All of these, it is true, are common species--numbers of
individuals can often be found in close proximity--and therefore it may
be argued that they keep to one position more from pressure of
population than from any inherited disposition working towards that end.
But the rarer species behave similarly. Districts frequented by the
Marsh-Warbler and offering plenty of situations of the type required by
the bird are often inhabited by a few members only, and yet the
disposition to remain in a definite position is just as marked.
You will say, however, that these smaller migrants have no exceptional
powers of flight; that they have besides just completed a long and
arduous journey; and you will ask why they should be expected to wander,
whether it is not more reasonable to expect that, in order to overcome
their fatigue, they should remain where they settle. The Cuckoo is a
wanderer in the wider sense of the term, and is gifted with considerable
powers of flight. Upon arrival the male flies briskly from field to
field, showing but little signs of weariness; yet we have only to follow
its movements for a few days in succession to assure ourselves that the
bird is no longer a wanderer; for just as the Warbler or the Chat moves
only within a definitely delimited area, so the male Cuckoo, strange as
it may seem, restricts itself to a particular tract of land. The area
over which it wanders is often considerable and consequently it is not
possible to keep the bird always in view, but inasmuch as the variation
in the voices of different individuals is quite appreciable,
identification is really a simple matter. If we cannot keep the bird in
sight, we can trace its movements by sound and mark the extent of its
wanderings, which by repetition become more and more defined, until a
belt of trees here, or an orchard there, mark a rough and rarely passed
boundary line.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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