210 THE MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS 



The clifF swallow^ whose range covers the greater 

 part of North America from Mexico north to Canada 

 and Alaska, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts, 

 has a peculiar line of migration flight, as birds from 

 the east migrate westward, so that the species 

 seems to go around the Gulf of Mexico instead of 

 across it. This line, followed in spring as well as in 

 autumn, accounts for the belated arrival of the 

 species on the eastern coast, and may possibly have 

 some connection with its rarity in recent years in 

 eastern Maryland and adjacent areas. Its line of 

 flight is the more peculiar since barn swallows cross 

 regularly through Cuba and other Antillean islands 

 to the mainland of South America. The cliff swallow 

 in its chosen route is not governed by any dislike 

 of prolonged flight, since after it reaches Panama it 

 may continue south into Argentina. 



Some observations on the spread of the common 

 starling are of interest. It has been learned through 

 banded birds that there is pronounced migration in 

 this species from the Scandinavian Peninsula, Fin- 

 land, and western Russia, south or sometimes south- 

 west, since birds from this region, including north- 

 ern Germany, have been taken in winter in Great 

 Britain. Birds from Germany have migrated also 

 into Spain, Italy, and even Tunis in northern Africa. 

 On the other hand, the breeding starling of England 

 seems to be rather strictly sedentary, since of a con- 



