474 FIELD STUDY IN ORNITHOLOGY. 



W. W, Cooke has been carrying on siniijar observations in the Missis- 

 sippi Valley, and others, too numerous to mention, have done the same 

 elsewhere. But, as Prof. Newton has truly said, all these efforts may 

 be said to pale before the stupendous amount of information amassed 

 during more than liftiy years by the venerable Herr Giitke, of Heligo- 

 land, whovse work we earnestly desire may soon appear in an English 

 version. 



We have, through the labors of the writers I have named, and many 

 others, arrived at a fair knowledge of *he When ? of migration. Of the 

 Howl w^e have ascertained a little, but very little. The lines of migra- 

 tion vary widely in different species, and in different longitudes. The 

 theory of migration being directed toward the magnetic pole, first 

 started by Middendorff', seems to be refuted by Baird, who has shown 

 that in North America the theory will not hold. Yet, m some instances, 

 there is evidently a converging tendency in northward migrations. 

 The line, according to Middendorff, in middle Siberia is due north, in 

 eastern Siberia southeast to northwest, and in western Siberia from 

 southwest to northeiist. In Euroi)ean Ivussia Menzbier traces four 

 northward routes: (1) A coast line coming up from Norway round the 

 North Cape to Nova Zembla. (2) The Baltic line with bifurcation, one 

 l)roceeding by the Gulf of Bothnia, and the other by the Oulf of Fin- 

 land, which is afterwards again subdivided. (3) A Black Sea line, 

 reaching nearly as far north as the valley of the Petchora; and (4) the 

 Caspian line, ])iissing up tke Volga, and reaching as far east as the val- 

 ley of the Obi by other anastomosing streams. 



Palm^n has endeavored to trace the lines of migration on the return 

 autumnaljourney in the Eastern Hemisphere, and has arranged them in 

 nine routes: (1) From Nova Zembla, round the west of Norway, to the 

 British Isles. (2) From Spitzbergen, by Norway, to Britain, France, 

 Portugal, and West Africa. (3) From North Eussia, by the Gulf of 

 Finland, Ilolstein, and Holland, and then bifurcating to the west coast 

 of France on the one side, and on the other up the Rhine to Italy and 

 North Africa. {4a) Down the Volga by the Sea of Azof, Asia Minor, 

 and Egypt, while the other portion {Ah), trending east, passes by the 

 Caspian and Tigris to the Persian (iulf, (o) By the YencvSei to Lake 

 Baikal and Mongolia. (6) By the Lena on to the Amoor and Japan. 

 (7) From East Siberia to the Corea and Japan. (8) Kamschatka to 

 Japan and the Chinese coast. (0) From Gi^eenland, Iceland, and the 

 Farohs, to Britain, where it joins line 2. 



All courses of rivers of importance from minor routes, and consider- 

 ation of these lines of migration might serve to ex])lain the fact of North 

 American stragglers, the waifs and strays which have fallen in with 

 great flights of the regular migrants and been more frequently shot on 

 the east coavst of England and Scotland than on tbe west coast or in 

 Ireland. They have not crossed the Atlantic, but have come from the 

 far north, where a very slight deflection east or west might alter their 



