78 NOTES ON THE MIGRATIONS OF THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. 
evidence that large numbers of our English Yellow Wagtails cross 
from the Continent in the autumn to migrate across England, and 
following a south-westerly direction.’ ‘The italics are mine. I am 
therefore naturally surprised to see he now includes the present 
species in his list of birds which travel due north to south, and in 
passing I may mention that I made special search for flocks of AZ. rait 
on the Lincolnshire coast between Skegness and Gibraltar Point in 
September, 1891, but without success 
I still think that Mr. Cordeaux’s theory that these flocks of JZ. rait 
are travelling from some district in central or south-eastern Europe 
cannot be accepted as correct until it is supported by continental 
evidence, for though a large colony of Yellow Wagtails exists in the 
Lower Volga district, the species is practically absent in the vast 
intervening country lying to the west of that locality, and in the 
remainder of continental Europe is only commonly found in the 
Iberian Peninsula, the west of France, and in PP en and Belgium. 
Even.in Spain and Portugal it is chiefly known, I believe, as a 
migrant. If Mr. Cordeaux is correct, surely " Heligoland should 
afford us some confirmatory evidence; but the agtail, 
examine the journey these birds would have to accomplish if the 
facts are as Mr. Cordeaux suggests. First, a land journey approaching 
a thousand miles, during which they escape the observation of 
continental ornithologists, next a sea passage to Lincolnshire over 
the German Ocean, then, as Mr. Cordeaux implies in his latest 
note, they travel due south down the coast to, let us say, Chapel- 
St.-Leonard’s, next a further sea-passage to north Norfolk, and finally, 
after further coast travelling, another sea-journey to the north of 
rance—truly a most remarkable and circuitous route to follow, and 
only followed, eo the migration is described as normal, by a 
portion of a large breeding community. Though I do not feel 
competent to discuss the subject from a geological point of view, 
I may point out that Mr. Cordeaux’s ingenious suggestion of a con- 
tinuous area of land uniting the shores of Holland and Lincolnshire, 
migration after following the Rhone and Seine, or some other river 
valley trending north, may just as well have turned along the ancient 
coast to the west instead of the east. It seems to me to be straining 
a point to send the stream in the latter direction if their destination 
was South Eastern Europe, when the most natural route would have 
been, as it is now known to be, from the African winter quarters 
south of the great desert, through Egypt. Before leaving d/. raii 
Naturalist, 
