60 THE BOOK OF MIGRATORY BIRDS 



all the facts point to the conclusion that the birds reach 

 the coast of England direct by way of the great Atlantic. 

 Nor, indeed, could a large number of birds like that have 

 travelled via Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroes, as one 

 might feel inclined to assume, without leaving behind them 

 more extensive traces than it has been possible, in spite 

 of all efforts, to obtain. 



It has also been long known that ships half way between 

 Europe and America have fallen in with birds travelling, 

 either singly or in flocks, in an easterly direction, 

 migrants of this kind having not rarely attempted to alight 

 upon the rigging, and some having also been caught there. 

 A case of this kind is mentioned by no less an authority 

 than Professor Alfred Newton, according to whom Dr. 

 Dewar observed on his passage from America, about six 

 hundred geographical miles east of Newfoundland, flocks 

 of the American white-winged crossbill crossing the 

 Atlantic in a stiff westerly breeze. Many of the flocks 

 alighted on the rigging of the ship, and of these twelve 

 examples were captured. One or two of the latter escaped 

 as the ship reached the Irish coast, and made straight for 

 the land. Two others succeeded in escaping from their 

 cages in the streets of Liverpool, and five were safely 

 brought home. The Professor draws the conclusion that 

 many others are thus helped across the streak by human 

 aid with what success may be inferred from the American 

 element in the list of so-called British birds. 



If strong westerly winds were the cause of, or exercised 

 an influence upon, the migration of American birds to 

 Europe, as has evidently been assumed to be the case, the 

 plover should be subject to such influences to a far wider 

 extent than any other species whose home is on the 

 other side of the Atlantic, for amongst the enormous 

 flocks of these birds which cross that ocean from north to 

 south one might expect that a violent westerly autumn 

 breeze would in all likelihood drive some individual 

 or other less robust than the rest across to the shores of 

 Europe. Such, however, is not the case; whence the fact 



