ARCTIC BIRD MIGRATIONS. 285 



fly-line of this migratory bird is estimated by orni- 

 thologists as extending for distances varying from 

 7000 to 10,000 miles. * 



Why should the wild goose, as soon as the first 

 indications of spring begin to appear, take its flight 

 from places where food is abundant, and fly towards 

 the polar seas, arriving there with the first movement 

 of the ice, and keep pushing on further and further 

 to the north, amid the regions of eternal snow, wher- 

 ever a patch of open water may appear, until, as 

 far as human knowledge goes, it seems probable they 

 may possibly reach the pole itself? 



It is generally supposed that they are inspired by 

 an instinctive desire to be able to rear their young 

 in safety, amid these icy solitudes, far from the reach 

 of human or other enemies. But are there not vast 

 areas of wild land much further south where, in a 

 less rigorous climate, they migiit rest as securely as 

 at the pole itself? It will be apparent that in neither 

 of these cases, can the search for food, the flight 

 from the reach of possible enemies, nor the fear of 

 heat or cold, quite account for the vast flights which 

 these birds undertake ; seeing that all these objects 

 would be obtainable elsewhere with much less labour 

 and difficulty, and a far less distant flight. 



Now it is specially in the Arctic Zone that these curi- 

 ous phenomena, respecting the distant migrations of 

 bird life, can be witnessed on the most extensive scale 

 and under the most peculiar circumstances. 



During the long night of an arctic winter, these 

 dreary regions are, with some few notable exceptions, 



* See The Migration of flirdsA.n Attempt to reduce Avian Season- 

 Flight to Law. By Charles Dixon, 1891, p. 57. 



