THE PERILS OF MIGRATION. 179 



of older birds. That this is the case is abundantly 

 proved by the fact that nearly all the birds that 

 accidentally wander to the British Islands from 

 more or less remote countries are birds of the year. 

 The list of British birds abounds with the names 

 of wandering species, not only from Eastern 

 Europe and Siberia, but from Africa, and even 

 from America/ These represent individuals that 

 from some cause or another have blundered 

 at the cross-roads, been blown far out to sea, 

 or joined the wrong stream of migration, and 

 journeying in its company have found themselves 

 at last in Western Europe, in the British Islands, 

 instead of in the Malay Archipelago, in India, in 

 Africa, or Mexico. Without including nomadic 

 migrants, whose movements are so erratic that there 

 is nothing extraordinary or abnormal in their 

 occasional visits to our islands, we have a list 

 composed of birds essentially migratory, that may 

 well excite our wonder when the details of each 

 occurrence is studied. Take, for instance, the 

 appearance of White's Thrush [GeocicJila varia), 

 the Siberian Ground Thrush [Geocic/ila sibirica), 

 and the Black-throated Ouzel {Menda atrigularis), 

 all birds regularly breeding in Central and Eastern 

 Asia, and retiring to winter quarters in India, China, 

 and the Malay Archipelago. Or even more re- 



^ It should be remarked that stray birds from the east and 

 north generally appear in autumn, as they do also from 

 America ; but birds from Africa and from the south as a 

 rule arrive in spring — individuals that have overshot the 

 limits of their normal spring migration. 



