BIRDS OF BERMUDA. 167 



bris, and the Blue Yellow-backed Warbler, Parula americana, can find 

 their way across GOO miles of water in safety, where is the line to be 

 drawn 'i 



With the exception of a solitary example of the European Skylark, 

 Alauda arvensis, and two of the European Snipe, Gallinago media, the 

 whole of the birds recorded in the Bermuda list are included in that of 

 Xorth America, and no species has as yet been discovered peculiar to 

 the islands. This, if we accept the theory of the comparatively recent 

 ''^^olian" formation of the group, is not to be wondered at. At one 

 time I actually had great hopes of establishing a real '^Indian species, 

 as I several times observed a small brown bird, remarkably shy and 

 mouse-like in its habits, among the dense rushes and scrub of the larger 

 swamps, and this I could not refer to any known Xorth American form. 

 I had a good view of one, too, close to me, one Sunday afternoon (of 

 course it was a Sunday, when 1 had no gun with me), and carefully took 

 stock of the little fellow; but as I never succeeded in procuring a speci- 

 men, I must perforce leave the question undecided, in the hope that 

 some one may be more fortunate in this respect than myself. 



Rejecting doubtful occurrences, one hundred and eighty-one species 

 are known to have occurred in the Bermudas up to June 3, 1875. Since 

 then five more have been added, making a total of one hundred and 

 eighty-six species entitled to a place in the list of Bermudian birds. 

 During the fourteen months I resided there, no less than seventy-nine 

 species were recorded, sixty-eight of these by myself personally. I was 

 only able to obtain specimens of sixty-one of these, but that, of course, 

 far exceeded my original expectations. The winter of 1874-'75 was not 

 exactly a favorable one for a collector, few violent storms occurring at 

 critical times to drive the birds to the strange and unexpected shelter 

 in mid-ocean. I worked hard — as hard, that is to say, as my multi- 

 farions duties as an engineer officer would permit — but many things are 

 against the study of ornithology in the Bermudas. In the tirst place, 

 the peculiar elongated shape of the group of islands, and the long dis- 

 tances between the various swamps and "likely" places, to say nothing 

 of the indifferent character of the roads, render it no easy task to 

 "register" even a particular district in the course of an afternoon. The 

 climate, too, except when the wiiul is from the north in winter time, is 

 warm and damp, and much against a long struggle through the sage 

 bush and scrubby cedars which clothe the hills, or over the rough, steel- 

 pointed rocks of the shore. Then there is such an extent of cedar forest, 



