918 The Zoologist — September, 1867. 



recorded in the ' Zoologist' and the ' Field' is one which not merely 

 claims the attention of the naturalist, but merits preservation in that 

 connected form which a separate essay like Mr. Gurney's has given it. 

 The remarkable immigration of the sand grouse in 1863 and of the 

 waxwing in 1849-50 are events of a, similar character to that of the 

 phalarope in 1866, and the scientific ornithologist will scarcely fail to 

 find in these unwonted events materials for speculation and diligent 

 investigation. Mr. Gurney very properly admits that speculation and 

 investigation have not yet solved the problem, although he thinks that 

 the severe and premature gales which prevailed during September had 

 something to do with it in the case of the phalaropes: icebergs, for 

 instance, came further south than had ever been known before. The 

 remark is rather suggestive than conclusive, and the real cause of this 

 and the other ornithological invasions to which we have alluded 

 remaius, for the present at least, a secret in Nature's keeping. 



In 18G6 the phalaropes began to arrive in the third week in August, 

 and the immigration continued until the second week in October, 

 extending over a period of fifty days ; at the beginning and end of this 

 period the arrivals were least numerous, and in the middle most so. 

 The south coast of England was most favoured by the visitors, two 

 hundred and fifty having been procured in Sussex, eighty-six in Hamp- 

 shire, and sixty-four in Devonshire; but the eastern and western 

 counties were not visited by such numbers, and still fewer were 

 observed in the midland and northern counties of England, and 

 scarcely any in Wales, Scotland or Ireland. Sussex appears to have 

 been the centre of attraction, and the number of individuals, or at any 

 rate of observations, decreases as we advance inland from Eastbourne 

 in every direction. It is not, however, to be assumed that Eastbourne 

 has attractions for them beyond other places, but that the town is 

 remarkably well off in the energy and activity of its ornithologists; 

 still the fact remains that the main stream of immigration set towards 

 the coasts of Hampshire and Sussex, and the inference has been 

 drawn, but as we think too hastily, that the stream flowed in a 

 northerly direction, and that the tired phalaropes observed so abun- 

 dantly in Sussex had just been crossing the channel from the opposite 

 coast of France. We incline to an exactly opposite conclusion, that 

 the birds were on their southern journey, and that Sussex and Hamp- 

 shire offered some natural advantages of which we are ignorant as 

 points of embarkation for their ocean voyage. 



" With regard to the plumage all were of course more or less in 



