PACE AND LAST 111 



another Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx lucidus) called the 

 Shining Cuckoo, which also probably follows the 

 same route. Both of them pass over a very wide 

 but shallow stretch of sea, from New Caledonia to 

 New Zealand, a region that in the early Tertiary 

 period was dry land. These birds, ultra-conservative 

 like nearly all feathered creatures, are keeping up the 

 practice of a great migratory flight, which, when 

 first attempted, was an overland journey, but now 

 passes over hundreds of miles of open sea. Captain 

 Hutton and others who have studied New Zealand 

 migrants are, apparently, of opinion that Norfolk 

 Island and the Kermadecs are not used as pieds a 

 terre, at any rate by all the birds that flock southward. 

 And so they make the journey in one long flight. 

 That the land birds ever rest on the sea is extremely 

 unlikely, and it is, of course, impossible that they 

 should ever get food from it. 3 here is another 

 bird that certainly deserves mention here — the 

 Eastern Godwit (Limosa baueri). It has been 

 found nesting in Alaska and in Northern Siberia 

 (74°-75° N. lat.), and in August begins, in vast 

 numbers, to move southward, passing along the coast 

 of Formosa. It has been observed in Norfolk Island 

 — a very interesting fact. But do all the Godwits 

 reach New Zealand by this route ? Even if they do, 

 we must not assume that they always take a rest on 

 Norfolk Island. It may be that they only pause 

 there if the weather is unfavourable. It is highly 

 probable that some migrant birds cross from Australia 

 to New Zealand. The Australian Swallow occa- 

 sionally makes its appearance there, and even if it 

 pauses to rest on one of the Lord Howe Islands it 



