120 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS 



the water. My friend Mr J. A. Dockray, when 

 punting in the Dee estuary, has often seen birds 

 alight to rest on his punt, and once saw a tired 

 thrush settle repeatedly on the water and finally 

 safely cross the estuary. There are several instances 

 recorded of passerine birds alighting upon and 

 rising again from the water. 



We do not know the extent of Greenland as a 

 summer breeding home of birds ; the growing 

 knowledge of this vast continent proves that its 

 summer avifauna is much larger than we thought, 

 and that western and eastern forms inhabit 

 adjacent breeding areas ; the possibility of birds 

 banding with the wrong set of travellers is greater 

 than was suspected. 



It is urged that the western shores of Scotland 

 and Ireland should receive these stragglers, but 

 that the records of American birds are fewer from 

 these coasts than from the eastern shores and even 

 Heligoland. The best island route, however, would 

 lead birds to join the travellers from Scandinavia 

 which pass by the safer eastern route than the one 

 round the western wind-swept shores of Ireland. 

 Even this reputed scarcity may be error, for how 

 many reliable watchers are there compared with 

 the immense length of this wave-indented coast- 

 line ? How easy for a straggler to be overlooked ! 

 Mr S. F. Baird, in his paper on the " Distribution 



