128 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



of the water in mid-ocean is such as would quite preclude their 

 search after any kind of food. 



After the facts which have been brought forward in evidence, the 

 probabihtj' of a voluntary and direct flight of American birds across 

 the Atlantic can hardly any longer be ojjen to doubt. It remains 

 for us therefore only to establish the possibility of such a flight. 



While discussing the velocity of migration flight, we have 

 already brought forward evidence which in general goes to prove 

 that a bird is capable of accomplishing a distance equal to that 

 at present under consideration in one uninterrupted flight. A 

 few words, however, may be added bearing more especially on 

 the case under discussion. The stretch of ocean between New- 

 foundland and Ireland covers sixteen hundred geographical miles, 

 without any intermediate resting-place. To accomplish this 

 distance would, at the slowest speed of flight as determined in the 

 case of a wild bird, viz. the Hooded Crow, occupy about fourteen and 

 a half hours. On the other hand, in the case of the Blucthroat, only 

 nine hours would be required. Nor is there any reason for doubt- 

 ing that a healthy bird and a fairly good flyer is capable of remain- 

 iutr on the winy for nine, and in extreme cases even fifteen hours. 

 We would mention here, however, one other instance which 

 furnishes an irreversible proof of an uninterrupted flight of as much 

 as three thousand two hundred geographical miles. During its 

 autumn migration the Virginian Plover travels from the Hudson 

 Bay Territory and Labrador across Guayna and northern Brazil to 

 lower South America. In the course of their normal passage these 

 birds neither resort to Bermuda, nor even to the Lesser Antilles, for 

 resting purposes, but fly across them without alighting, and they only 

 interrupt their journey when forced by sudden and violent storms, 

 in which case countless numbers of them seek shelter on one or 

 another of the aforesaid islands. They have been observed, more- 

 over, six hundred miles east of Bernmda, for whole days and nights 

 travelling to the south, in flocks succeeding each other without inter- 

 mission, and numbering from a hundred to a thousand individuals. 

 (Vide J. M. Jones, The Naturalist in Bermuda, pp. 71-77.) These 

 flocks, proceeding from Labrador to northern Brazil, meet nowhere 

 with the smallest resting-place in the course of their long migration 

 flight across the ocean, and are consequently obliged to perform 

 this long stretch of three thousand two hundred geographical miles 

 without a stoppage. They thus accomplish double the distance of 

 sixteen hundred miles from Newfoundland to Ireland, and con- 

 sequently r-emovc every doubt as regards the possibility of the latter 

 achievement. 



While discussing this subject, the thought may have involun- 

 tarily arisen in the reader's mind that some of these wanderers 



