BIRD-MIGRATION AT ST KILDA 191 



Iceland and Greenland, since it does not ordinarily 

 interpose meteorological barriers between the north- 

 west and St Kilda. 



The investigations carried out at St Kilda in the 

 autumns of 1910 and 191 1 prove that the island is 

 annually visited by considerable numbers of migratory 

 birds. 



It is an important station on a main route traversed 

 by summer birds proceeding to and from Iceland, and 

 by the few Palsearctic species which are migrant- 

 natives of Greenland. This was abundantly evident 

 during both visits from the numbers and the frequency 

 of the arrivals of the Greater Wheatear, and hardly less 

 so from those of the White Wagtail, Meadow- Pipit, Red- 

 wing, Snipe, and Golden Plover; and further, in 191 1, 

 from the occurrence of several Greater Redpolls, whose 

 native home is in Greenland and North-Eastern America. 

 The north-western element in the ornis of the archi- 

 pelago is further strengthened by the discovery of the 

 Pennsylvanian Pipit and Baird's Sandpiper — both of 

 which are natives of North America. 



St Kilda also lies on the very verge of that enormous 

 stream of migration which rushes along the British 

 coasts to and from Northern Europe, and in these 

 remote islands reaches its extreme westerly limit in 

 northern Britain. During my visits I found no less 

 than twenty-six different kinds of such European birds 

 — species which change their homes with the seasons — 

 as migrants on their southern journey to accustomed 

 winter quarters. 



In all, ninety-six species came under our notice. Of 

 these, sixty-two were migrant-visitors chiefly on their 

 passage southwards to winter quarters, and fourteen were 



