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Tunis, the two narrowest points. Numbers do cross there certainly, but the 
mass of them cross at one of the broadest parts of the sea. 
The bird finds its way chiefly by Memory. In its first migration it probably 
followed its parents closely, and so learnt the way; but whether that be the 
case or not, I believe it would take the same track by what has been called 
Hereditary-, or Instinctive Memory. For countless ages its ancestors have 
followed exactly the same track. Individuals which were weak in sight, or not 
strong on the wing, probably lost their way and perished, the doctrine of the 
‘survival of the fittest” came into play, and a keen-sighted strong-winged 
progeny was the result. In the same way as when you teach a dog to point 
game, its puppy will point of its own accord without teaching, that is, by 
instinct ; so the instinctive impulse to travel by a particular route has descended 
from bird to bird, gaining strength as it descended. And this travelling by 
memory gives us the clue to the reason why they follow an apparently needlessly 
dangerous route. 
Let us examine the track of the Bernicle Geese, which is so well known and 
defined that it may be marked by a line on the map. The Bernicles breed in 
the extreme north, amongst the dreary Arctic icebergs. When they start on 
their journey towards the south, one division of them, coming from Greenland, 
fly over Iceland and the Feeroe Isles to the west coasts of Scotland, England, 
and Ireland. A second division, starting from Spitzbergen, cross the Arctic 
Sea to North Cape in Norway, and, following the line of the Norwegian coast 
as far as it extends westward, divides, one lot flying over the Shetland Isles to 
the east coast of Scotland, the other following the Norway coast down to the 
Skaggererack, and then flying straight across the North Sea to the Coast of 
Northumberland and Durham. A third division of this great army come wd 
Nova Zembla down the White Sea, and across a whole chain of lakes to the 
Gulf of Finland. They follow the Baltic down to Denmark, and cross over 
Schleswig Holstein to the mouth of the Elbe, where enormous gatherings of 
birds are to be seen in the migratory season. They now divide, one lot 
following the coast of Holland, France, and Spain, the other going up the 
valley of the Rhine down the valley of the Rhone to the coasts of Italy ; some 
even crossing by Sardinia to Africa. Thus we see that this bird which was 
shot at Drigg came from Greenland ; had he been killed at Newcastle, he would 
have been a native of Spitzbergen. 
This travelling by memory explains the reason why a particular route is taken. 
Ages ago, when Europe was utterly different in shape to what it is now, the 
wild geese chose this track, and their descendants ever since have followed 
obediently their airy way. High in the air with nothing to guide them, sea and 
sky alone in sight, their marvellous instinctive memory leads them unerringly 
year by year. And this has been abundantly proved by the ocean soundings 
that have been taken during the last few years. From the east coast of England 
