The Scottish Naturalist, 233 



from land to land. This from the nearest places ; but there is 

 quite sufficient proof to show that the direct line of flight is from 

 much further north — even from the shores of Newfoundland. 

 Taking this direct line of passage to apply to water-birds only, 

 there is no reason why land-birds, coasting down the Bay of 

 Fundy towards Cape Cod, should not take a direct course from 

 thence to Cape Hatteras, and so on to the Bahamas. They 

 would, in the one instance, perform a sea journey of little short 

 of 500 miles, and, in the other, 600 — the greatest distance from 

 the American coast varying from 100 to 200 miles. But I think 

 I can show that these land-birds do infinitely more than this, 

 executing the whole distance in a single flight. 



The Bermuda group, nearly equi-distant between Nova Scotia, 

 the North Atlantic States, and the West Indies, is annually visited 

 by large numbers of migrants, of various species, especially should 

 strong gales set in. In the autumn months, Plover, and many of 

 the Tringidce, go south in large armies, passing either directly over 

 in the vicinity, or even far to the eastward, of the Islands, but do 

 not, as is the case with many birds, return by the way they went ; 

 and though possibly working their way back to their old haunts 

 through the States, yet, strange to say, their course northwards is 

 still undefined. Should fine and favourable weather set in, this long 

 ocean journey is possibly efl"ected without a single check : on the 

 other hand, should one of the great tropical storms be encountered, 

 which are not uncommon in these seas at this particular season, 

 the migratory hosts would be at once driven for shelter to the 

 nearest land. A very remarkable occurrence of this took place 

 on the night of the 8th and the morning of the 9th of October 

 1849, when not only enormous quantities of many species of 

 birds lighted on the Islands, but thousands also passed over 

 without doing so. With regard to the state of the weather on the 

 occasion, my friend, Mr Hurdis, long resident on the Islands, 

 sends me the following note and observations : "Bermuda, Oct. 

 9, 1849. Torrents of rain fell during the whole of last night and 

 this morning, accompanied by a strong wind from the S.W.;" and 

 in allusion to this, as also to the numerous birds that visited the 

 Islands on the occasion, says : " It is very evident from the same, 

 that a tropical gale, moving from south to north, came up on the 

 night of the 8th and 9th October, the right wing of which passed 

 over the Bermudas. Those Isles, being in N.lat. 32", near which 

 these storms attain their extreme westerly range, would be swep 

 by its right wing thus. Letter A represents Bermuda at the com- 



