40 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS 



roughly in spring from south to north, in Eastern 

 Siberia from south-east to north-west, and in Europe 

 from south-west to north-east ; they converged, in 

 fact, upon the Taimyr Peninsula. This to some 

 extent is doubtless true, but Middendorf goes on to 

 prove that the magnetic pole is situated in this 

 Peninsula and that the birds are drawn thither by 

 magnetic influence, " in spite of wind, weather, night 

 or cloud/' He calls them " sailors of the air/' pos- 

 sessed of an internal magnetic influence. He sup- 

 ports his argument by the statement that there is 

 a similar convergence in North America towards the 

 magnetic pole of the western hemisphere. 



But all birds do not go in the direction of the 

 magnetic poles, and many of those which do, stop 

 short at suitable breeding places long before they 

 have travelled so far north. The Taimyr Peninsula, 

 a vast area in the extreme north of Siberia, is each 

 spring a " zoological vacuum " ; towards this desir- 

 able spot migrants will stream. 



Herr Otto Herman cleverly shows the absurdity 

 of many of the reputed routes by cartography ; his 

 map is crossed in all directions by the routes upheld 

 by various theorists. Birds could not possibly 

 follow all the directions " which authors invented 

 for them/' most of which he adds are founded on 

 mere supposition (31). Dr Palmen, he shows, 

 usually managed to avoid districts where there were 



