Ornithology of the Var b^c. 407 



although a hundred observers in the English Channel have 

 proved that migratory birds are not dependent on a short 

 sea passage^ it is natural that where they have the choice 

 they should to some extent prefer it^ knowing themselves to 

 be more or less at the mercy of the winds. Accordingly 

 the observations of Colonel Irby and others, recorded in 

 ' The Ornithology of Gibraltar/ seem to prove that however 

 many African migrants may arrive in spring on the south 

 coast of France, a far greater number cross from Morocco 

 into Spain, where the journey is very much shorter for 

 them. 



As regards wind, that is a subject on which there are 

 many opinions, and those rather contradictory. It can hardly 

 be that any birds prefer a head-wind for their migration, 

 though if long delayed at the point of departure they may 

 be found to accept it ; and then they are naturally more in 

 evidence on landing, because that same head-wind has been 

 keeping them back, and the observer sees them, which he would 

 otherwise not have done. It is evidently a head-wind which 

 makes Quails, Woodcocks, &c. occasionally appear so fatigued 

 on lauding, and not the length of the sea-passage; and this 

 must also be the reason when, as sometimes happens, they 

 are seen to settle on the water, no doubt in consequence of 

 exhaustion. 



In the same way it was obviously the N.E. wind, being a 

 head-wmA, which in April 1895 caused an unwonted influx 

 of birds to arrive on the coast at Bordighera (Zoologist, 1895, 

 p. 309), and the westward movements of Pigeons and 

 Starlings described above (see p. 364) are only explicable on 

 the theory of a head-wind coming from the west. Of one 

 thing we may be fairly certain, that wind is the key to 

 the right understanding of ornithological migration, and 

 that when we do understand it, what seem to be erratic 

 movements will admit of explanation, though without that 

 knowledge they are not likely to be ever made clear. 



