THE TRAVELS OF BIRDS 



and Porto Rico, we passed a beautiful, snowy- 

 plumaged Tropic Bird. The bird was headed 

 northwest toward the Bermudas, was flying 

 rapidly, and seemed to pay no attention to our 

 steamer. 



Doubtless he was hurrying to join the hun- 

 dreds of his kind which every year, late in Feb- 

 ruary, go to the Bermudas to rear their young. 



Now this little group of islets is about six 

 hundred miles from the most northern of the 

 Bahamas and the same distance from the coasts 

 of South Carolina and Nova Scotia. On every 

 side it is surrounded by water of great depth and 

 there is no reason to believe that there ever was 

 any land nearer to it than those places which I 

 have mentioned. 



So the Tropic Birds which every February 

 go to the Bermudas could not have learned the 

 route little by little, as the Bobolinks have 

 crossed the continent. There was no halfway 

 house. The first journey had to be made just as 

 the latest ones are, in one flight. 



We cannot believe that the first Tropic Birds 

 102 



