76 THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 
which arrived from the north, and were precisely similar to 
the golden plover which visits the Bermudas. My in- 
formant stated, that on one occasion, when the weather was 
dark and stormy, these plover made their appearance in 
such multitudes at St. John’s, the chief town of the colony, 
that the inhabitants were seen, in every direction, shooting 
them from their doors and windows; indeed, so numerous 
were they, that boys destroyed them with sticks and stones, 
and shooting them soon ceased to be considered sport. He 
added, that in ordinary seasons, the plover are not seen in 
such immense numbers, although they never failed to be 
very abundant. They remained in the island for ten or 
fifteen days only, taking their departure as soon as the 
weather became settled. 
Another gentleman, who had resided in Martinique, gave 
the same account of the golden plover in that island, 
stating, at the same time, that it was impossible to exag- 
gerate the numbers which sometimes appeared there. 
Sir Robert Schomberg mentions, in his History of 
Barbadoes, that during a south-west gale which prevailed 
at that island on the morning of the 12th of Sept., 1846, 
the flights of wild birds were so numerous, that they were 
struck down with stones, and thousands were shot, and the 
Barbadoes newspapers asserted that there had not been so 
ereat a flight since the storm of 1780. What these “wild 
birds ” were, the author does not state, but there can be no 
doubt that he alludes to the golden plover of America. 
Now, I have already shown that an immense flight of these 
birds passed to the eastward of the Bermudas on the 10th 
of that month, and during the ensuing night. If, then, we 
suppose these birds to travel at the moderate speed of thirty 
