MIGRATION 561 
by the late Dr. Severzoff,! and as regards Eastern Europe by Dr. 
Menzbier,”? while other contributions to the subject, too numerous 
to be here named, have also appeared.2 It seems even now pre- 
mature to criticize minutely the results of these works—conjectural 
many of them confessedly are, while some of the details on which 
they are founded rest on observations that cannot be regarded as 
wholly trustworthy and are doubtless open to correction, but 
nearly all is put forward in a way that deserves the fullest atten- 
tion. On the part of some writers, we will not say it of Prof. 
Palmén, there seems to be a disposition to attach an almost 
superstitious importance to the phrase Migration-route. Such 
persons should bear in mind Dr. Menzbier’s very true remark that 
every species on Migration goes its own way, and what is called a 
Migration-route is only the coincidence of the way taken by more 
or fewer of them. One of the routes (‘“X”) described by Prof. 
Palmén, and one of considerable interest to dwellers in the United 
Kingdom, is extremely questionable. Indeed the data to establish 
its existence were not forthcoming when he wrote, and probably 
are not forthcoming now, though in the interim much has been 
done toward the collection of facts at light-houses and light-ships 
around our coasts by the “ Migration Committee” appointed by 
the British Association in 1880, which continued its exertions for 
nine years,* with the result of accumulating a mass of statistics, 
1 Etudes sur le passage des Oiseaux dans UV Asie Centrale particuliérement par 
le Ferghénah et le Pamir (Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscov, 1880, i. pp. 234-287). 
2 Die Zugstrassen der Vogel im europdischen Russland (op. cit. 1886, ii. pp. 
291-369). Herein four chief routes of European origin are laid down—(1) a via 
norvegica rounding the North Cape, skirting the coast of the Kola Peninsula and 
continued along the arctic shores of Russia to Waigats and Nova Zembla: (2) 
a via baltica which splits into three lines, one passing up the Gulf of Bothnia 
to Torne’ where it bifurcates, one stream ascending the river of that name, the 
other proceeding overland to Kola ; a second line passes along the Gulf of Finland 
’ to Viborg, and thence along the northern shore of the Ladoga and Onega Lakes 
over the White Sea to Nova Zembla; while a third, occasionally anastomosing 
with the second, crosses the Gulf of Riga and, passing to the southward of the 
two lakes just named, finally arrives also in Nova Zembla: (3) a via pontica 
which, leaving the Black Sea, spreads over the whole of Russia, becoming fainter 
as it proceeds northward though perceptible within the Arctic Circle in the 
Muonio basin, and reaching nearly as far north in the valleys of the Mezen and 
Petchora: lastly (4) a via caspia ascending the Volga on the west so far as 
Jaroslav, and to the eastward reaching by many anastomosing streams the valley 
of the Obi, 
3 A good summary of them is given in the Report (Referat iiber den Stand 
der Kenntniss des Vogelzuges) drawn up by Prof. Palmén for the International 
Ornithological Congress held at Budapest in 1891. 
4 When I say the exertions of the Committee I mean chiefly those of its 
secretary, Mr. Cordeaux, whose enthusiasm prompted the men at the several 
stations to make observations, while his energy in carrying on the laborious 
36 
