328 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



Cabin, south, during the winter, the body of a big 

 snow-white Arctic owl. 



Alfred Newton and Hans Gadou claim in their 

 "Dictionary of Birds" that certain North Ameri- 

 can species, particularly limicolae, are at times 

 found in eastern England and Scotland. The 

 only possible explanation for this would have to 

 lie in the fact that these birds with us breed in high 

 northern latitudes, and in their southern migration 

 they are blown from their course by stiff west 

 winds, the strongest of which prevail on the At- 

 lantic, so that the birds, unable to breast these 

 fall gales, are blown before them to the coast of 

 Norway, where they establish friendly relations 

 with flocks of closely allied species and so find their 

 way on a southeasterly course to Scotland and 

 England, where they are recognized by dealers ex- 

 tremely familiar with their own species through 

 constant handling of them. This opens up the 

 question of whether it is not possible for reverse 

 winds to carry Eviropean species to us. The dis- 

 tance would remain the same, but we are forced to 

 admit that there are no east winds so strong on the 

 Atlantic as the gales from the west. 



There used to be a theory that birds in mi- 

 gration flew in wedge-shaped formation, following 

 a chosen leader. Small birds that I have ob- 

 served in migration seemed to me rather to fly in 

 waves — those that I recognized as finches and 

 sparrows, robins and larks. There is more inclina- 



