66 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



FROM AMERICA TO EUROPE. 



THE occurrence of so many American species on 

 European soil involuntarily suggests the question 

 as to the possible route by which these birds maj 

 have reached us from their distant homes. That they 

 should have crossed that vast waste of water, the Atlantic, 

 was at first either disbelieved or only admitted with much 

 reserve, mainly because it was considered quite impos- 

 sible for a bird to sustain the uninterrupted flight of at least 

 sixteen hundred geographical miles involved in such a 

 journey. 



Instead of at once entering into the consideration as to 

 the possibility of such a feat, it would perhaps be wiser 

 to examine which of the two routes leading from America 

 to Europe seems more likely to be adopted by migrants 

 — that to the east over the ocean or, otherwise, the so- 

 called overland route through Asia and Eastern Europe. 



For this purpose a comparison of the lists of rare and 

 exceptional occurrences in Germany with that of the 

 similar occurrences in England at one glance decides this 

 question in a most convincing manner, because, whereas 

 Germany can show an unexampled number of Asiatic 

 species, with only extremely isolated instances of Ameri- 

 can birds, England marshals a perfect flood of American 

 species and individuals, among which only a few scattered 

 visitors from Asia are found. 



These facts speak clearly enough ; it is impossible that 

 two hundred and fifty birds should travel from America 

 through Asia and the greater part of the continent of 

 Europe to England without more than ten of their number 

 being observed or killed in Germany ; on the other hand, 

 all the facts point to the conclusion that the birds reach 

 the coast of England direct by way of the great Atlantic. 

 Nor, indeed, could a large number of birds like that have 

 travelled via Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroes, as one 

 might feel inclined to assume, without leaving behind them 

 more extensive traces than it has been possible, in spite 

 of all efforts, to obtain. 



