136 The Scottish Naturalist. 



with ease the Gulf of Genoa to Corsica and Sardinia, and so to 

 the coast of Tunis. Those to the north and east of that 

 descending by Italy and keeping a southerly course from the 

 Roman States would strike the north part of Sicily \ from thence 

 they would cross over by Pantellaria to Cape Bon, a distance of 

 about 80 miles to the former place (the shortest in the Mediterra- 

 nean with the exception of Gibraltar) without going to Malta 

 at all. 



Those going by the Straits of Messina and eastern coast of 

 Sicily to Malta, would still have to accomplish over two 

 hundred miles of sea to get to the nearest part of the Tripoli 

 coast in a southwardly direction, and even, if taking a due east 

 or north-east course (which is not likely) to get to the nearest 

 points they would have little short of two hundred miles to go ; 

 and some we know cross over from the Calabrian and Otranto 

 coast in the south of Italy, and from the mouth of the Adriatic, 

 a distance of about 500 miles or more. Those from Scandi- 

 navia, Austria, Western Russia, and Turkey, would naturally 

 descend, some by the shores of the Adriatic, either due south to 

 Benghazi on the Tripoli coast, or through the Ionian Islands 

 and Morea to the most southern of the Ionian group, Cerigo, 

 and so on by Crete to the African shores. To the eastward, by 

 Macedonia, down the Archipelago \ and still further to the east 

 along the shores of the Black Sea, crossing the Bosphorus into 

 Asia Minor, and even from the Crimea across the Black Sea and 

 so continue their journey southward. 



With the exception of from the coast of Southern Italy and 

 mouth of the Adriatic, in no case would the distance 

 exceed what we know our smallest birds do regularly in 

 crossing the German Ocean. For instance, the little 

 golden-crested wren performs a journey across sea of 400 

 miles, while the distances in the Mediterranean from any of the 

 places mentioned, with the above exception, would not be half 

 that. Can it be reasonable to suppose, following this rule of 

 eastern and western movements (which of course must equally 

 apply to the southern shores of the Mediterranean as well as 

 the northern) that all birds from Algiers, and to the west of that 

 would travel some hundreds of miles to get opposite Gibraltar 

 on the one hand, and the same distance to the east to get 

 opposite to Malta on the other hand, whereas, by keeping a 

 direct course from Algiers to the nearest of the Balearic Islands, 

 they would only have 150 miles to accomplish, and from the 



