56o MIGRA TION 



Swedish, some of the chief results ^ were briefly given in 1875 in 

 the Encyclopedia Britannica (ed. 9, iii. p. 768), but until its ap- 

 pearance in a German translation ^ it attracted little notice. The 

 author's views were at first approved by the late Herr Eugen von 

 Homeyer, an ornithologist of great experience (Jmorn. fur Orn. 1876, 

 pp. 387-391 ; 1878, p. 113), but then challenged on several points 

 by him in a separate work,^ which called forth a spirited reply 

 from Prof. Palm^n.^ Similar researches have been continued in 

 greater detail by two Eussian zoologists, as regards Central Asia 



Asiatic Researches (xviii. pp. 122-128), and Marcel de Serres's Bes causes des Migra- 

 timis des Animaiix et particulierement des Oiseaux et des Poissons (Haiiem : 1842). 

 This last though one of the largest publications on the subject is one of the 

 least satisfactory. Baird's excellent treatise On the Distribution and Aligrationg 

 of North American Birds has been before adverted to {suprci, p. 330). 



^ They may be here repeated : The main routes taken by the most migratory 

 Birds of the Palsearctic area on their retiirn autumnal journey are, according to 

 Prof. Palmen, nine in number. The first (A — to use his notation), leaving the 

 Siberian shores of the Polar Sea, Nova Zembla, and the North of Russia, passes 

 down the west coast of Norway to the North Sea and the British Islands. The 

 second (B), proceeding from Spitsbergen and the adjoining islands, follows much 

 the same course, but is prolonged past France, Spain, and Portugal to the west 

 coast of Africa. The third (C) starts from Northern Russia, and, threading the 

 White Sea, and the great Lakes of Onega and Ladoga, skirts the Gulf of Finland 

 and the southern part of the Baltic to Holstein and so to Holland, where it 

 divides — one branch uniting with the second main route (B), while the other, 

 running up the valley of the Rhine and crossing to that of the Rhone, splits up 

 on reaching the Mediterranean, where one path passes do^vn the western coast of 

 Italy and Sicily, a second takes the line by Corsica and Sardinia, and a third 

 follows the south coast of France and eastern coast of Spain — all three paths 

 ending in North Africa. The fourth (D), fifth (E), and sixth (F) main routes 

 depart from the extreme north of Siberia. The fourth (D), ascending the river 

 Obi, branches out near Tobolsk — one track, diverging to the Volga, descends that 

 river and so passes to the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea, and thence, by the Bos- 

 phorus and .^gean, to Egypt ; another track makes for the Caspian by way of 

 the Ural River and so leads to the Persian Gulf, while two more are lost sight of 

 on the steppes. The fifth (E) mounts the Jennesei to Lake Baikal and so passes 

 into Mongolia. The sixth (F) ascends the Lena and striking the Upper Amoor 

 reaches the Sea of Japan, where it coalesces with the seventh (G) and eighth (0) 

 which run from the eastern portion of Siberia and Kamchatka. Besides these 

 the ninth (X), starting from Greenland and Iceland, passes by the Fseroes to the 

 British Islands and so joining the second (B) and third (C) runs down the 

 French coast. These being the main routes it must be added that, in Prof. 

 Palmen's opinion and that of many others, nearly all river-courses form minor 

 routes. In giving this abstract I wish to state that I do not thereby express my 

 agreement with all that it contains. 



2 Ueher die Zugstrassen der Vogel. Leipzig : 1876. 



^ Die Wanderungen der Vogel. Leipzig: 1881. 



■* Antwort an Herrn E. F. von Homeyer, bezilglich der ' Zugstrassen der 

 Viigel.' Helsingfors & Leipzig : 1882. 



