The Birds of Pembrokeshire. KON 
for this reason our Pembrokeshire Ornis is poor in respect to its 
summer migrants. Many also cross from projecting Capes on the 
coast of Normandy to the nearest headlands opposite; thus the 
neighbourhood of the Start Light-house in South Devon is a great 
landing-place ; but these birds chiefly stock the counties of Devon, 
Cornwall, and Dorset, and only a few, if any, pass on northwards 
across the Bristol Channel. A few occasional visitors from the South 
of Europe, of which the Rose Pastor and the Little Bittern may be 
cited as examples, that not unfrequently cross the English Channel 
become absorbed by the southern counties of England, and only a 
rare straggler out of the number passes over the Bristol Channel into 
South Wales. Thisis thereason why South European species, not very 
rare in some of the English counties, are either without any record in 
Pembrokeshire, or have been noted there only in single instances. 
We cannot resist the conclusion that Pembrokeshire is, when com- 
pared with counties that are more fortunate in their position, some- 
what of a bird-forsaken district. We have called attention elsewhere 
to the absence of American species, and have considered that others, 
besides the two which have been noted, may probably have occurred 
without recognition; for if we are correct in our opinion that 
American birds reach us mainly overland, across the north of Asia 
and Europe, and travel down our western coasts, it is reasonable to 
expect that so many would be met with in Pembrokeshire as have 
been recorded from the better-watched shores of Devon and Corn- 
wall. 
The spring and autumn migrants that fall to the share of Ireland 
do not appear to reach it, except to a very slight extent, by passing 
over our county. Birds arriving from the continent traverse the 
centre of England by river valleys, and, reaching the estuary of the 
Severn, an important highway, continue their flight over the Bristol 
Channel far to the south of the Welsh counties. Others come from 
the north-west, crossing England to the north and, passing the Isle of 
Man, land on the northern shores of Ireland; while the greater 
part of the summer visitors come up from North Africa, by the 
route of Spain and the Bay of Biscay, and fetch the south of Ireland 
after a long, but rapidly executed, passage high in the air, and 
directly over the water. Many also arrive v/a@ the English Channel, 
