4 THE BIRDS OF THE BERMUDAS. 
Situated in lat. 32° 15/N., and long. 64° 51’ W., six hundred 
miles or more from the great North American continent, and 
exposed to the full force of ever-varying gales, the long, narrow 
group of islands known as the ‘‘ Bermudas’’ offer a harbour of 
refuge to many a weary, storm-beaten migrant on its passage 
north or south, and in consequence we find a great many genera of 
the North American avi-fauna represented in the visiting list.) On 
this subject my friend Mr. J. Matthew Jones, of the Middle 
Temple, editor of ‘‘ The Naturalist in Bermuda’’ (1859), remarks— 
‘*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. Equidistant, 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.”’ 
Some species, as the American Golden Plover, American Snipe, 
Sora Rail, Night Hawk, Chordeiles virginianus, Yellowshanks, &c., 
seldom fail to appear every autumn, and may be set down as 
regular visitors, probably from the fact that their line of migration 
is direct from the north-eastern coasts of the continent to the West 
Indies and tropical South America; but, as will presently be seen, 
the great bulk of the recorded species are irregular or accidental 
visitors, whose migratory journeys are less ambitious, and who are 
blown off the mainland by unfavourable winds. ‘That fresh species 
will from time to time be added to the present list is more than 
probable ; in fact, it is possible that the whole avi-fauna of North 
America may eventually be recorded as Bermudian... When such 
diminutive flyers as the Ruby-throated Humming-bird, 7rochilus 
colubris, and the Blue Yellow-backed Warbler, Parula americana, 
ean find their way across six hundred miles of water in safety, 
where is the line to be drawn ? 
. With the.exception of a solitary example of. the European Sky 
Lark, Alauda arvensis, obtained in 1850, the whole of the birds 
recorded in the Bermuda list are included in that of North 
America, and no species has as yet been discovered peculiar to the 
islands. This, if we accept the theory of the comparatively recent 
‘* Molian’’ formation of the group, is not to be wondered at. At 
one time I actually had great hopes of establishing a real ’Mudian 
species, as I several times observed a small brown bird, remarkably 
shy and mouse-like in its habits, among the dense rushes and scrub 
of the larger swamps, and this I could not refer to any known 
North American form. I hada good view of one, too, close to me, 
one Sunday afternoon (of course it was on.a Sunday, when I had no 
gun with me), and carefully took stock of the little fellow; but, as 
I never succeeded in procuring a specimen, I must perforce leave 
the question undecided, in the hope that someone may be more 
fortunate in this respect than myself. 
Rejecting doubtful oceurrences, one hundred and eighty-one 
species are known to have occurred: in the Bermudas up to June 
3rd, 1875. Since then two more species, Certhia familiaris and 
Limosa hudsonica, have been added. During the fourteen months 
