SOME MODERN VIEWS 21 



Siberian forests or the desolate tundras that border the 

 shores of the Arctic Ocean. The waters of the North 

 Sea are crossed, among others, by many fairy-like forms, 

 including such frail voyagers as the diminutive Gold- 

 crest. These are trunk routes, and the lines by which 

 they are indicated on the maps may be regarded as 

 their central portions ; there are, however, innumerable 

 minor ways associated with them, which it is impossible 

 to indicate. There are also others, of a purely local 

 nature, which are only known to observers who have 

 been long resident in their vicinity. 



In traversing these routes, Weismann Ms of opinion 

 that the migrants are simply following the old ways by 

 which their ancestors originally travelled to spread 

 themselves out towards the north. He points out, 

 among other instances, that their present fly-lines over 

 the Mediterranean (see map of routes) are the sites of 

 the old land bridges (which formerly divided that great 

 sea into a series of lesser inland seas) over which the 

 birds used to pass on their journeys to and from the 

 south in the earlier days of their migrations. 



The journeys of many of the migrants, when travel- 

 ling to their seasonal haunts, are marvellous perform- 

 ances, since they extend from the arctic regions to New 

 Zealand, Tasmania, the Cape of Good Hope and Cape 

 Horn. Some of them entail flights across wide stretches 

 of open ocean, as in the case of the beautiful little 

 Cuckoo {Chalcococcyx lucidus), which summers in New 

 Zealand and Norfolk Island and winters in eastern 

 Australia. The distance between New Zealand and 

 Australia direct is about 1 200 miles, and there are no 

 resting places en roiUe. The journey may be accom- 



' Loc. cit. 

 I. B 2 



