Il6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



with Mr. D. McPhee Lee, observed a flock of Plover or 

 Curlew, numbering about fifty birds, passing at a consider- 

 able height to the south-east. 



Captain Rollo, 42nd Highlanders, informs me that on 

 the 31st ult, he observed a large flock of birds pass over 

 Mount Langton, towards the south-east. Is certain they 

 must have numbered two hundred. They were very high, 

 with long trailing lines from a leading cluster. 



September t>th. — Mr. Samuel Nelmes, one of the oldest 

 sea-going navigators of these islands, told me to-day, as 

 he cleared out his schooner for Prince Edward Island, that 

 when commanding the brigantine " Carib," twelve or thir- 

 teen years ago, on a voyage from London to Bermuda, in 

 the month of September, and sailing in the latitude of 

 these islands, with fair breezes and a continuation of 

 remarkably fine weather, the vessel going four or five 

 knots only, and the Bermudas distant between four and 

 five hundred miles, he fell in with endless flocks of Plover, 

 all flying in a south-east direction. 



On referring to the Custom House Records, I find that 

 this voyage was made in the year 1833 ; the date of the 

 Master's report at the Custom House, in Hamilton, being 

 September 14th. 



Though aware that an immense body of these wonderful 

 migrants sometimes crossed the latitude of these islands 

 some miles to the eastward, this is the first instance, which 

 has come to my knowledge, of their stretching so far in 

 that direction, being upwards of a thousand miles from the 

 nearest part of America. 



September 6th. — Flocks of Plover repeatedly seen to-day 

 flying to the southward, by various individuals. 



