MIGRATION 549 
ing for the fact above stated is that the majority of North-American 
Birds which occasionally visit Europe are of species which breed in 
somewhat high northern latitudes. On their way thence to their 
winter-quarters, some are driven out to sea by violent westerly 
gales—the strongest winds, be it remembered, that prevail in the 
North Atlantic, and thus strike the coast of Norway.t In that 
country observers may be said to be practically absent, and fowlers 
as a rule unknown. Such storm-beaten wanderers there consort 
with the allied species to be found at that season in abundance 
on its shores, and in their company pursue the same southerly 
course. With them they cross to the east of Great Britain, and 
once arrived here are speedily picked out and secured by the 
practised gunner. But should they even escape his notice, they 
with their comrades follow the shore-line, where they obtain the 
best supply of food, until passing round the south coast they find 
themselves at the western extremity of England—the district of 
the Land’s End, in which, next to Norfolk and Suffolk, the greatest 
number of these Transatlantic stragglers have been obtained. This 
suggestion may serve to shew what most likely goes on in other 
parts of the world, though the materials for establishing its general 
truth are not forthcoming. 
But returning to the subject of Migration proper, distinguished 
as it ought to be from that of the more or less accidental occur- 
rence of stray visitors from afar, we have here more than enough 
to excite our wonder, and indeed are brought face to face with 
perhaps the greatest mystery which the whole animal kingdom 
presents—a mystery which attracted the attention of the earliest 
writers, and can in its chief point be no more explained by the 
modern man of science than by the simple-minded savage or the 
poet or prophet of antiquity. Some facts are almost universally 
known and have been the theme of comment in all ages and in all 
lands. The Hawk that stretches her wings toward the south is as 
familiar to the latest Nile-boat traveller or dweller on the Bosphorus 
as of old to the author of the book of Job. The autumnal throng- 
ing of myriads of Waterfowl by the rivers of Asia is witnessed by 
the modern sportsman as it was of old by Homer. Anacreon 
welcomed the returning Swallow in numbers which his imitators 
of the colder north, to whom the associations connected with it are 
doubly strong, have tried in vain to excel. The Indian of the Fur- 
Countries in forming his rude calendar names the recurring moons 
after the Birds-of-passage whose arrival is coincident with their 
changes. But there is no need to multiply instances. The flow and 
ebb of the feathered tide has been sung by poets and discussed by 
philosophers, has given rise to proverbs and entered into popular 
1 Prof. Baird’s remarks on this subject are much to the point (Am. Journ. Se. 
ser. 2, xli. pp. 344, 345). 
