try to be killed either by storm or failure of food, others of the 

 same species would probably speedily make their appearance if 

 the country be adapted for them, and presently occupy the same 

 ground. There seems to be no rule for the migration of birds. 

 Some species, the Arctic Tern for instance, is a summer resident 

 only on our coast : it appears to be the same in Greenland. If 

 it can procure food and what is requisite for its young, one won- 

 ders why it should travel so great a distance spparently unneces- 

 sarily. In some places the Common, Sandwich, and Roseate 

 Terns associate with the Arctic Tern while breeding, and seem to 

 require the same food and situation for their nests. Why do 

 they not, also, go so far north ? How is it that the Little Auk, 

 when it comes from its northern haunts in autumn and early in 

 winter to these shores, is generally found dead or dying at any 

 rate, very lean and exhausted ? where is its regular winter home, 

 where it must be in millions ? What becomes of the Phalaropes 

 in winter? I have never seen the old Red-necked Phalarope in 

 its winter plumage, a bird of the year only appearing occasionally 

 in autumn : the Grey Phalarope, also, only occasionally pays us 

 a visit during his autumnal migration, and not one in fifty is an 

 old bird. Where can the hosts of Knots, Common Godwits, Grey 

 Plovers, and Sanderlings, which sometimes visit us, breed in 

 Europe ? The breeding grounds of the Knot, Grey Plover, and 

 Sanderling are known in North America, but the Common God- 

 wit is not an American species, though it appears exactly at the 

 same seasons and manner as those other species last mentioned, 

 on oui' coasts. How do the young birds of the year only, of 

 many species, find their way to us in autumn, as the Great Snipe, 

 Pigmy Curlew, Little Stint, Temminck's Sandpiper, Green Sand- 

 piper, Spotted Redshank, and others? Why does the Black- 

 headed Gull sometimes depart from its usual custom and breed 

 by the sea side, and the Lesser Black-backed Gull sometimes 

 leave the sea and breed on the moors far inland ? The distribu- 

 tion of species is curious. In many instances, one is found in 

 particular districts and at particular seasons only, coming with 

 great regularity, and rarely observed except at those places, 

 whilst another nearly allied, gets generally distributed through- 



