40 Introduction: Migi-ation. 



the Bay of Bengal. Sturma violacea, for instance, is not known from the con- 

 tinent of Asia, but breeds in Japan, from where it seems to fly directly in 

 autumn to the Philippines, Borneo, N. Celebes and the Moluccas. Musckapa 

 (/nseosticta and Locustella fasciolata breed in North China or N. E. Asia and occur 

 in winter in the East Indies which are washed by the Pacific, as far as New 

 Guinea and the Moluccas, respectively. Heteractitis brevipes wanders in winter 

 down the West Pacific coasts from unknown breeding grounds in the high North 

 as far south as Australia. A remarkable traveller across the Pacific is seen in 

 Limosa mvaezealamliae; this bird has been found breeding in Alaska and Arctic 

 Siberia, and it visits New Zealand in great numbers in winter, the majority of 

 individuals apparently flying directly across the Pacific without making use of 

 the East Indies as a resting-])lace, for the number of examples recorded from 

 there is comparatively very small (see p. 794 . In the case of this species, as 

 also in that of the Pacific Cuckoo, Urodi/namis taitiensis (Sparrm.), it is perhaps 

 erroneous to attempt to avoid the assumption of a "sense of direction". Still 

 ocular remembrance of the sparsely scattered atolls and high islands of the 

 Pacific on which the birds may land or pass over, together with the positions 

 of the sun and stars at certain hours, and the direction of the roll of the waves 

 should not be left out of account as a means by which they may alter and 

 regulate their course over hundreds of miles of trackless ocean (see Mobius: 

 "Ein Beitr. z. Frage iib. d. Orientirung der wandernden Vogel": Ausland 1 882 p. 648). 

 Migration south of the equator. — Professor Newton remarks D. B. 555^: 

 "If the relative pro])ortion of land to water in the southern hemisphere were 

 at all such as it is in the northern we should no doubt find the birds of southern 

 continents beginning to press upon the tropical and equatorial regions of the 

 globe at the season when they were thronged with emigrants from the north 

 . . . but we know almost nothing of the migration of birds in the other hemi- 

 sphere". In this comment — very true, apparently, in regard to the compara- 

 tively small amount of migration south of the equator — Prof. Newton has 

 almost overlooked a great point of difference in northern and southern mi- 

 gration, namely that the birds of the South proceed towards the equator in the 

 time of our summer and leave the tropics again for their breeding quarters 

 about the time that the equatorial countries are invaded by the migrants from 

 the North. The southern territories which call for consideration in this book 

 (the East Indies and Australia) have furnished very few thorough - going 

 migi-ants; it is certain that the number is very small com])ared with that of the 

 northern hemisphere, but there is also a regrettable lack here of competent 

 observers and of published observations. One or two passages relating to mi- 

 gration across the Torres Straits seem to show that among the islands here it 

 is possible that a second Heligoland may be found some day. Remarks to this 

 effect are made in Moseley's 'Naturalist on the "Challenger"', 1879, p. 3G4: 

 "Most of the birds of Cape York are constantly migrating, and the resident 

 official at Somerset told me that the constant change from month to month of 



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