52 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



form its longest sea-flight during the journey, viz., from 

 Norway to the Ferroe Islands, in about ten hours. This 

 appears to me far less wonderful than the actual power of 

 wing displayed in crossing the ocean from any geographical 

 point to the Bermudas. 



Let us enquire in what direction it is probable that this 

 European migrant came to visit these islands. A direct 

 course from Europe across the vast Atlantic, in the face 

 of prevailing westerly winds, cannot, I conceive, be enter- 

 tained, under any circumstances ; but if we suppose this 

 bird, as a summer migrant, to have passed from the shores 

 of Norway, in a westerly direction to the coast of Labra- 

 dor, and that at the appointed season (say the latter end 

 of September), its natural instinct should prompt its return 

 to southern latitudes, what can be more probable, or more 

 in accordance with the natural instinct of the migratory 

 tribes in that western portion of the globe — particularly the 

 young birds bred upon the spot — than following a southern 

 course in preference to any other, thus crossing the Straits 

 of Belle Isle, the western coast of Newfoundland, the 

 island of Cape Breton, and the Province of Nova Scotia ? 

 This would reduce the over-sea flight from Nova Scotia to 

 Bermuda to about seven hundred and thirty miles, which 

 at the rate before given, would require eighteen hours to 

 perform. 



I am the more inclined to think this theory correctly 

 founded, from the novel circumstance of a single specimen 

 of Crex pratensis having been killed in these islands on 

 October 25 th of the present year. As this bird is known to 

 visit Iceland, it may probably — like the Wheat-ear extend 

 its vernal flight to Greenland, or even to Labrador; and 

 thus, by a parity of reasoning, be found, as a straggler 

 from the Eastern World, on the sea-girt isles of Bermuda. 



Both the Wheat-ear and the Landrail met with in Ber- 



