MIGRATION AMONG SHORE-BIRDS 175 



south of the Equator in the southern hemisphere, 

 so that as a group they have longer migration routes 

 than any other order of birds. Though the south- 

 ern hemisphere has a number of peculiar forms some 

 of which are more or less migratory, there are none 

 that perform the extensive flights common among 

 their brethren of the north. 



In connection with this group, it may be well to 

 consider claims that have been made that the god- 

 wits, yellow-legs, and plover found in South America 

 in winter do not really come from the north, but 

 that there are two groups in the species concerned, 

 one that breeds in boreal regions and in winter mi- 

 grates toward the Equator, and another that nests 

 somewhere in Patagonia, the islands of Antarctic 

 Seas, or even on the great Antarctic continent, and 

 in cold weather flies toward the north to winter in 

 Argentina. This belief has been based in part upon 

 the irregular occurrence of these migratory birds 

 during periods when all should have been on their 

 northern breeding grounds, and in part upon dis- 

 belief in the power of flight in creatures apparently 

 small and weak. 



It may be said definitely that there has never 

 been any proof of the breeding of such species as 

 the golden plover, the yellow-legs, the godwits, or 

 other similar species, considered as migrants from 

 the north, during their sojourn south of the Equator 



