THE GLACIAL RANGE CONTRACTION, ETC. 153 



the Mute Swan, the Fink-footed Goose, Temminck's 

 Stint, and the Red-necked Grebe are as yet unknown 

 in Ireland ; but as at least four of these birds are 

 extremely uncommon in all other parts of the British 

 Area, and the remaining three have a strongly-marked 

 eastern tendency in their migrations, it is scarcely fair 

 to take them into consideration in our analysis. Of the 

 57 species that visit Ireland in winter, or pass over it on 

 migration to and from the north, it is a very suggestive 

 fact that no less than 29 breed in Greenland, Iceland, 

 or the Faroes, or pass the Faroes and Iceland on 

 migration — the nearest land masses north of the Irish 

 Area lying beyond the British limits. Of the remaining 

 28 species, at least four (Bewick's Swan, Bean Goose, 

 Pomatorhine Skua, and Bufifon's Skua) spend the 

 summer in the high north in little known lands between 

 Greenland and Nova Zembla ; whilst twelve of the rest 

 breed more or less commonly in Scandinavia, and whose 

 migrations to our area may be traced in all but one 

 instance {Colymbiis arcticus), by way of the Shctlands 

 and Orkneys. Four others are known or presumed to 

 breed in Arctic Russia (the Smew, the Gray Plover, the 

 Curlew Sandpiper, and the Bar-tailed Godwit), but in 

 the case of the three latter more western breeding 

 grounds may yet be discovered ; whilst the Smew is 

 decidedly rare in Ireland. Of the remaining eight 

 species two (the Rough-legged Buzzard and the Gos- 

 hawk) are only abnormal wanderers to Ireland, and six 

 are decidedly rare in any part of the United Kingdom, 

 viz. the Black Redstart, the Waxwing, the Bittern, the 

 Great Bustard, the Little Bustard, and the Little Gull 

 (all rarer in Ireland even than elsewhere), species whose 



