560 MIGRATION 
Swedish, some of the chief results + were briefly given in 1875 in 
the Lncyclopedia Britannica (ed. 9, i. p. 768), but until its ap- 
pearance in a German translation? it attracted little notice. The 
author’s views were at first approved by the late Herr Eugen von 
Homeyer, an ornithologist of great experience (Journ. fiir Orn. 1876, 
pp. 387-391; 1878, p. 113), but then challenged on several points 
by him in a separate work,® which called forth a spirited reply 
from Prof. Palmén.* Similar researches have been continued in 
greater detail by two Russian zoologists, as regards Central Asia 
Asiatic Researches (xviii. pp. 122-128), and Marcel de Serres’s Des causes des Migra- 
tions des Animaua et particuliérement des Oiseaua et des Poissons (Harlem: 1842). 
This last though one of the largest publications on the subject is one of the 
least satisfactory. Baird’s excellent treatise On the Distribution and Migrations 
of North American Birds has been before-adverted to (supra, p. 380). 
1 They may be here repeated : The main routes taken by the most migratory 
Birds of the Palearctic area on their return autumnal journey are, according to 
Prof. Palmén, nine in number. The first (A—to use his notation), leaving the 
Siberian shores of the Polar Sea, Nova Zembla, and the North of Russia, passes 
down the west coast of Norway to the North Sea and the British Islands. The 
second (B), proceeding from Spitsbergen and the adjoining islands, follows much 
the same course, but is prolonged past France, Spain, and Portugal to the west 
coast of Africa, The third (C) starts from Northern Russia, and, threading the 
White Sea, and the great Lakes of Onega and Ladoga, skirts the Gulf of Finland 
and the southern part of the Baltic to Holstein and so to Holland, where it 
divides—one branch uniting with the second main route (B), while the other, 
running up the valley of the Rhine and crossing to that of the Rhone, splits up 
on reaching the Mediterranean, where one path passes down the western coast of 
Italy and Sicily, a second takes the line by Corsica and Sardinia, and a third 
follows the south coast of France and eastern coast of Spain—all three paths 
ending in North Africa. The fourth (D), fifth (E), and sixth (F) main routes 
depart from the extreme north of Siberia. The fourth (D), ascending the river 
Obi, branches out near Tobolsk—one track, diverging to the Volga, descends that 
river and so passes to the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea, and thence, by the Bos- 
phorus and Agean, to Egypt ; another track makes for the Caspian by way of 
the Ural River and so leads to the Persian Gulf, while two more are lost sight of 
on the steppes. The fifth (E) mounts the Jennesei to Lake Baikal and so passes 
into Mongolia. The sixth (F) ascends the Lena and striking the Upper Amoor 
reaches the Sea of Japan, where it coalesces with the seventh (G) and eighth (0) 
which run from the eastern portion of Siberia and Kamchatka. Besides these 
the ninth (X), starting from Greenland and Iceland, passes by the Feroes to the 
British Islands and so joining the second (B) and third (C) runs down the 
French coast. These being the main routes it must be added that, in Prof. 
Palmén’s opinion and that of many others, nearly all river-courses form minor 
routes. In giving this abstract I wish to state that I do not thereby express my 
agreement with all that it contains. 
2 Ueber die Zugstrassen der Vogel. Leipzig: 1876. 
3 Die Wanderungen der Vogel. Leipzig: 1881. 
4 Antwort an Herrn E. F. von Homeyer, beziiglich der ‘ Zugstrassen der 
Vogel.’ Helsingfors & Leipzig: 1882. 
