532 Alexander Goodman More Scientific Papers. 



REMARKS UPON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 

 ["ZOOLOGIST," May, 1859.] 



IT was the apparently exceptional case of a small-billed migrating 

 warbler being found upon our shores in winter that first drew my 

 attention to a movement little noticed, but which, it is believed, will be 

 found to take place regularly in autumn and winter, in a nearly direct 

 line from the East to the West of Europe. 



The black redstart is well known to occur every winter at different 

 spots along the channel, as well as in other parts of Great Britain, a 

 country which, for all practical purposes, occupies with regard to 

 Europe a westerly position ; yet this redstart scarcely reaches so far 

 North as Scandinavia in its summer migration, though it is common at 

 this season in the more central parts of Europe. 



Several herons, as the great egret and buffbacked herons, also the 

 ibis and the little owl, have been seen in England in late autumn or 

 winter, and all these, it is well known, are found during the breeding 

 season to inhabit the eastern and southern more than the northern 

 parts of the Continent. So has the courser,* a bird of the Mediter- 

 ranean basin, been shot upon Salisbury Plain in October; and the 

 Dalmatian Regulus, from the borders of Asia, was taken in Northum- 

 berland at the end of September ; White's thrush in January. The 

 little bustard is a still more striking instance of a species indigenous to 

 the East and South of Europe appearing with us during the winter 

 months ; and this bird, too, has been observed in the act of migration 

 flying from East to West near the Caspian Sea. 



In Devonshire and Cornwall t it is during winter that are found the 

 fire-crested Regulus, Richard's pipit, alpine accentor, spoonbill and 

 little bustard; and many birds of the highest rarity in Britain have 

 occurred at the Land's End in September and October, yet can hardly 

 be supposed to have been reared in England : the crested and short - 

 toed larks, woodchat, ortolan, pastor, avocet and ibis must have pro- 

 ceeded from the central or even southern countries of Europe. And 



* Other birds no doubt come to us in greater numbers in autumn and winter 

 from the East and South of Europe ; but it has been thought best to rely upon 

 the rare species, since they cannot have come to us from a northern latitude. 



fFor Cornwall I have principally relied upon the numerous and valuable 

 communications of Mr. Rodd to the ' Zoologist.' The Irish occurrences are 

 quoted from Thompson's work ; and for Great Britain use has been made of 

 YarrelTs birds and of various notices in the ' Zoologist.' The present paper 

 contains but a short abstract from a large collection of facts, and it is intended 

 to invite discussion upon so interesting and difficult a subject. 



