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y.— NORTH- AMERICAN BIRDS CROSSING THE ATLANTIC, 

 BY PERCY EYANS FREKE. 



[Eead, November 15th, 1880,] 



The following tables are based upon a paper which I read before 

 this Society last year, entitled " A comparative Catalogue of Birds 

 found in Europe and North America," {vide Proceedings, Vol 2, 

 n.s., p. 373). In the present article I have selected only those 

 occurrences which seem to be generally accepted as authentic by 

 the best authorities. This has entailed a very large reduction in 

 the number of instances quoted, which now amount to 394, 

 and it also curtails considerably the list of species by the 

 omission of such birds as the Nyctale acadica and Sco2:)s asio. 

 Others, also, such as Chen hyperhoreus and Pufinus ohscurus, 

 may have come to us across the Atlantic, yet as they inhabit 

 Africa or Asia as well as America, they have been omitted here, 

 as have such birds as ThalassidTonia oceaniea which make the 

 ocean their home, with a widely extended range. I have, how- 

 ever, included Xema sahinii, for although it probably may be 

 considered as belonging to northern Asia, yet our European 

 specimens being taken in the west, may I think fairly claim to 

 have come to us from America, especially when we consider the 

 prevalence of strong winds from the west, and the greater liability 

 of stragglers to be found east of their natural habitat. In the 

 case of Bemicla canadensis, I have only included the two ex- 

 amples which have occurred at the Faroe Isles, as its presence 

 with us in numbers as an ornamental waterfowl throws great 

 doubt upon its occurrence here in a really wild state. 



In preparing this paper I have received the greatest assistance 

 from the excellent article of Mr. Dalgleish, * which has lately ap- 

 peared in the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, and which 

 may now be considered as the standard authority on the subject. 



As a means of arrangement I have placed the different species 

 under the three heads of land birds, waders, and swimming birds, 

 as I think this plan best agrees with the manner in which they 

 have been influenced by the circumstances attending their im- 

 migration, 



* " List of Occurrences of North American Birds in Europe," by J. J. Dalgleish. 

 Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, Vol. V., Nos. 2, 3, and 4 (1880). 



