90 A HISTORY OF BIRDS 



noticed that immature birds occur the most frequently. Such 

 wanderers would appear to have been blown out of their course 

 while journeying towards some distant goal. They may re- 

 present species common in parts of Europe in close proximity 

 to our own shores, or individuals from the far distant North 

 America. These latter, as the late Professor Newton has re- 

 marked, are of species which breed in somewhat high northern 

 latitudes. " On their way thence to their winter-quarters, some 

 are driven out to sea by violent westerly gales — ^the strongest 

 winds, be it remembered, that prevail in the North Atlantic, 

 and thus strike the coast of Norway. . . . Such storm-beaten 

 wanderers there consort with the allied species to be found at 

 that season in abundance on its shores, and in their company 

 pursue the same southerly course. With them they cross to 

 the east of Great Britain, and once arrived here are speedily 

 picked out and secured by the practised gunner. But should 

 they even escape his notice, they with their comrades follow 

 the shore-line, where they obtain the best supply of food, until 

 passing round the South Coast they find themselves at the 

 western extremity of England — the district of the Land's End 

 in which, next to Norfolk and Suffolk, the greatest number of 

 these Transatlantic stragglers have been obtained. This sug- 

 gestion may serve to show what most likely goes on in other 

 parts of the world, though the materials for establishing its 

 general truth are not forthcoming." 



Time may prove the truth of this suggestion. But even so 

 there will remain a greater mystery to be explained, a problem 

 which seems at the present day well-nigh insoluble. And this 

 refers to the regular and orderly movements of a large number 

 of totally unrelated species whereof every member partici- 

 pates — movements which compel the attention of even the most 

 unobservant, while at the same time it excites the wonder of 

 those who find in the study of Nature a never-ending delight. 

 As the late Professor Newton eloquently puts it : " The Hawk 

 that stretches her wings towards the south is as familiar to the 

 latest Nile-boat traveller or dweller in the Bosphorus as of old 

 to the author of the book of Job. The autumnal thronging of 

 the myriads of Water-fowl by the rivers of Asia is witnessed by 

 the modern sportsman as it was of old by Homer. Anacreon 

 welcomed the returning Swallow in numbers which his imitators 



