BIRDS OF BERMUDA. 167 
bris, and the Blue Yellow-backed Warbler, Parula americana, can find 
their way across 600 miles of water in safety, where is the line to be 
drawn? 
With the exception of a solitary example of the European Skylark, 
Alauda arvensis, and two of the European Snipe, Gallinago media, the 
whole of the birds recorded in the Bermuda list are included in that of 
North America, and no species has as yet been discovered peculiar to 
the islands. This, if we accept the theory of the comparatively recent 
“ Holian” formation of the group, is not to be wondered at. At one 
-time I actually had great hopes of establishing a real ’Mudian species, 
as I several times observed a small brown bird, remarkably shy and 
mouse-like in its habits, among the dense rushes and scrub of the larger 
swamps, and this I could not refer to any known North American form. 
I had a good view of one, too, close to me, one Sunday afternoon (of 
course it was a Sunday, when I had no gun with me), and carefully took 
stock of the little fellow; but as I never succeeded in procuring a speci- 
men, I must perforce leave the question undecided, in the hope that 
some one may be more fortunate in this respect than myself. 
Rejecting doubtful occurrences, one hundred and eighty-one species 
are known to have occurred in the Bermudas up to June 3, 1875. Since 
then five more have been added, making a total of one hundred and 
' eighty-six species entitled to a place in the list of Bermudian birds. 
During the fourteen months I resided there, no less than seventy-nine 
species were recorded, sixty-eight of these by myself personally. I was 
only able to obtain specimens of sixty-one of these, but that, of course, 
far exceeded my original expectations. The winter of 187475 was not 
exactly a favorable one for a collector, few violent storms occurring at 
critical times to drive the birds to the strange and unexpected shelter 
in mid-ocean. I worked hard—as hard, that is to say, as my multi- 
farious duties as an engineer officer would permit—but many things are 
against the study of ornithology in the Bermudas. In the first place, 
the peculiar elongated shape of the group of islands, and the long dis- 
tances between the various swamps and “likely” places, to say nothing 
of the indifferent character of the roads, render it no easy task to 
“register” even a particular district in the course of an afternoon. The 
climate, too, except when the wind is from the north in winter time, is 
warm and damp, and much against a long struggle through the sage 
bush and scrubby cedars which clothe the hills, or over the rough, steel- 
pointed rocks of the shore. Then there is such an extent of cedar forest, 
