98 



alludes to it in the chapter on the Eeed Bunting (p. 380). He 

 further adds that the present species has never been met with in 

 France and Spain. The paucity of observers in the latter 

 countries would sufficiently account for this, though as regards 

 Spain the statement is not quite accurate, Colonel Irby stat- 

 ing that the Northern Bluethroat has occurred near Malaga 

 and Valencia, on the authority of Arevalo (" Ornith. Straits of 

 Gibraltar "). 



It will be further found that the winter quarters of this 

 species — which are variously stated by Herr Gatke to be located 

 in Egypt, North-eastern and Central Africa (to what part of 

 Africa the latter designation is to apply is not very clear), and 

 again, on p. 267, referring to those which nest in northern 

 Europe, in Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia— do not lie in a relative 

 position of due north and south to the breeding grounds. The 

 flight, therefore, of a flock from the north of Egypt to the Dovre 

 Ejeld, in Norway — which, according to Herr Gatke, is the locality 

 where the Bluethroats calling at Heligoland breed — will not cross 

 the island at all unless a considerable westerly deviation takes 

 place beforehand. Its course looulcl, however, cross the Alps ; 

 and may the latter fact not give us a clue to the non-observance 

 of the species in intermediate localities ? As has before been 

 pointed out, might not these Bluethroats " rest in some lofty 

 Alpine valley" as Herr Gatke suggests is perhaps the practice of 

 other migrants, in his charming opening words on p. 1. This 

 consideration is, apart from the fact of the extreme paucity of 

 observers in Italy. It must also be noted that in comparison 

 with the extent of the breeding grounds in Northern Europe, the 

 winter quarters of the Bluethroat have a very narrow longitudinal 

 area ; there must, therefore, be considerable lateral spreading, 

 both to the east and west, on the part of the various flights as 

 they perform their spring journeys. 



A few words must be again said as to the identity of the flocks 

 passing Heligoland with the colony breeding in the Dovre Fjeld 

 in Norway. Herr Gatke expects his readers to take this fact for 

 granted without his putting forth the least evidence in its favour, 

 beyond his own theory that the migrations of this Bluethroat are 

 performed in a rigidly-adhered-to, south-to-north line of flight. 



