INTRODUCTION. Xl 
purpose of colonizing the Bermudas, and a ship with emi- 
erant settlers, under the charge of Governor Richard More, 
having arrived in those islands on the 11th July, 1612, 
they may be considered as permanently inhabited by the 
human race from that period. 
Although the Bermudas have undergone some change 
since the days of Sir George Somers, and a portion of the 
land has been brought under cultivation, still we are 
inclined to look upon the general outline and appearance 
of those islands at the present time, as very similar to that 
which presented itself to the gallant old admiral. The 
cedar tree still clothes the uncultivated hills and valleys 
with its evergreen foliage, and the palmetto still dots the 
landscape with its bending plumes. Fish still abound in 
the surrounding waters; but the wild hog has long since 
given place to the domestic representative of the same 
family. The tropic bird and the tern still frequent the 
rocky coast during the fervid months of summer, for the 
purpose of incubation, disappearing at the approach of 
winter, but the great family of gulls and other sea-birds, 
which tends so much to the beauty and cheerfulness of 
ocean scenery, has long since abandoned a spot so thickly 
inhabited by the human race. 
That the Bermudas afford an excellent position from 
whence to observe the annual migration of many species of 
the feathered tribes of America, cannot be doubted. Equi- 
distant, or nearly so, from the shores of Nova Scotia, the 
United States, and the West Indian archipelago, they 
present, as it were, a casual resting place to many birds, 
while traversing the broad expanse of ocean which forms 
the eastern limit of their great line of flight. 
