^02 Recent Literature. \j^^ 



natural physical highways, except when large bodies of water force them 

 to deviate from the desired course." It does not follow, however, that 

 because all the birds of a district do not concentrate and move in masses 

 along river valleys and coast lines that they are not guided in their 

 courses by the prominent features of the landscape, even in the case of 

 those species which pass from the upper Mississippi Valley to the coast 

 of South Carolina and Georgia. Nor is it true that river valleys, etc., 

 do not form favorite migration routes for many species of birds. So 

 far as our acquaintance with the literature of the subject goes, it is not 

 the "favorite belief," etc., that the prominent physical features of the 

 continent "form well-marked highways " along which migratory birds 

 travel, but merely constitute the landmarks by which their journeys are 

 guided. 



Under ' Routes of Migration ' much new- information is presented, the 

 direct outcome of the author's investigations. He specifies several routes 

 by which North American birds reach northern South America. The 

 first is by Florida, the Bahamas, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles. 

 Of 50 New England species that pursue this route the greater part do 

 not pass beyond Porto Rico. "Only adventurers out of some 6 species 

 gain the South American mainland by completing the island chain." A 

 more direct route is by Florida, Cuba, and Jamaica, taken by about 60 spe- 

 cies, of which about half stop in Cuba, the rest passing on to Jamaica, 

 while only about 10 of these leave Jamaica to cross the 500-miie stretch 

 of open water to reach South America. Of these the Bobolink is so con- 

 spicuous by its numbers, in comparison with its fellow travellers, "that 

 the passage across the Caribbean Sea from Cuba to South America may 

 with propriety be called ' bobolink route.' " 



The main highway to South America is from northwestern Florida 

 across the Gulf of Mexico over a sea course of 700 miles. The Cuba- 

 Yucatan route, formerly supposed to be a favorite one, involving only a 

 100-mile sea flight, Mr. Cooke affirms is taken by o\\\y "a few swallows, 

 some shore birds, and an occasional land bird storm-driven from it& 

 intended course, while over the Gulf route, night after night, for nearly 

 eight months in the year, myriads of hardy migrants wing their way 

 through the darkness toward an unseen destination." Still further west, 

 the birds of the Plains and Rocky Mountains which choose Mexico and 

 Central America for their winter home reach these countries by a lei- 

 surely land journey. It would be interesting to know to what extent some 

 of these generalizations rest on negative evidence, for stations along the 

 eastern coast of Mexico, including Yucatan, where observations have been 

 made bearing on the migration of birds are certainly few and far between, 

 and cover only short periods. 



An interesting feature of the paper is the account of the migration 

 routes of the Golden Plover, illustrated by a map showing the breeding 

 area of the species and its two very distinct routes of migration — a direct 

 sea course in the autumn, from Nova Scotia to Venezuela, and the interior 



