MIGRA TION 549 



ing for the fact above stated is that the majority of North-American 

 Birds which occasionally visit Europe are of species which breed in 

 somewhat high northern latitudes. On their way thence to their 

 ■winter-quarters, some are driven out to sea by violent westerly 

 gales — the strongest winds, be it remembered, that prevail in the 

 North Atlantic, and thus strike the coast of Norway.^ In that 

 country observers may be said to be practically absent, and fowlers 

 as a rule unknown. Such storm-beaten wanderers there consort 

 with the allied species to be found at that season in abundance 

 on its shores, and in their company pursue the same southerly 

 course. With them they cross to the east of Great Britain, and 

 once arrived here are speedily picked out and secured by the 

 practised gunner. But should they even escape his notice, they 

 with their comrades follow the shore-line, where they obtain the 

 best supply of food, until passing round the south coast they find 

 themselves at the western extremity of England — the district of 

 the Land's End, in which, next to Norfolk and Suftolk, the greatest 

 number of these Transatlantic stragglers have been obtained. This 

 suggestion may serve to shew what most likely goes on in other 

 parts of the world, though the materials for establishing its general 

 truth are not forthcoming. 



But retm-ning to the subject of Migration proper, distinguished 

 as it ought to be from that of the more or less accidental occur- 

 rence of stray visitors from afar, we have here more than enough 

 to excite our wonder, and indeed are brought face to face with 

 perhaps the greatest mystery which the whole animal kingdom 

 presents — a mystery which attracted the attention of the earliest 

 writers, and can in its chief point be no more explained by the 

 modern man of science than by the simple-minded savage or the 

 poet or prophet of antiquity. Some facts are almost universally 

 known and have been the theme of comment in all ages and in all 

 lands. The Hawk that stretches her wings toward the south is as 

 familiar to the latest Nile-boat traveller or dweller on the Bosphorus 

 as of old to the author of the book of Job. The autumnal throng- 

 ing of myriads of Waterfowl by the rivers of Asia is witnessed by 

 the modern sportsman as it was of old by Homer. Anacreon 

 welcomed the returning Swallow in numbers which his imitators 

 of the colder north, to whom the associations connected with it are 

 doubly strong, have tried in vain to excel. The Indian of the Fur- 

 Countries in forming his rude calendar names the recurring moons 

 after the Birds-of-passage whose arrival is coincident with their 

 changes. But there is no need to multiply instances. The flow and 

 ebb of the feathered tide has been sung by poets and discussed by 

 philosophers, has given rise to proverbs and entered into popubr 



^ Prof. Bah'd's remarks on this subject are much to the point {Avi. Journ. So. 

 ser. 2, xli. pp. 344, 345). 



