LLANDDWYN 7 



selves attempt the passage of an untried sea. Where 

 birds now cross seas, it is, I think, always where 

 land was once continuous, such birds having been 

 gradually trained to longer passages as the sinking 

 land widened the sea-breach. But, although 

 evidence enough of extremely ancient land con- 

 nection between this Anglesey and Ireland is 

 afforded by the similar nature and strike of rocks 

 appearing upon this very Menai Road and the Irish 

 coast about Wexford, the most recent time at which 

 it can have existed was the later Pleistocene. It is, 

 therefore, all but certain that the few Redstarts now 

 breeding in Ireland are descendants of birds that did 

 actually essay St. George's Channel without having 

 had experience of that route. This I should judge 

 they would do in the company of birds of other 

 species with an already established line of migration 

 by that route, being stimulated by their example and 

 numbers, just as animals of all sorts, including man, 

 are easily aroused to strange courses if there be a 

 large number of them gathered together under 

 exciting influences, such as, for birds, are the 

 circumstances attending the migratory flight. The 

 rarity of the Redstart in Ireland, then, would appear 

 to be due to the recency of the extension of its 

 breeding range to that country. 



The bicycle is not for all moods. A spirit of 

 random rush sits on the cyclometer and whirls the 

 tense spokes round. He has no regard for fore- 

 ground and middle distance. What was present is 

 past ere one has seen it; what was to come is here 

 ere one is aware. No new species will ever be 



