43 



Eed-spotted Bluethroat. Eeferring to its geographical distribu- 

 tion Herr Gatke writes : — " This species breeds in high northern 

 latitudes of the old world from Kamscbatka as far as the 

 central and northern portions of Norway, while its winter 

 quarters range throughout the whole of Southern Asia and over 

 the eastern half of North Africa." It may here be pointed out 

 that most authorities refer to Egypt as the winter quarters of 

 the Northern Bluethroat, as Herr Gatke himself does in other 

 places. This point is of importance in view of the fact that 

 Herr Gatke makes such special reference to the undeviating 

 character of the flight. As the latter part of North-eastern Africa 

 is the only locality where this species is found in winter, it is 

 difficult to see how a rigidly performed south-to-nortb flight 

 would cross Heligoland at all. He further adds: — "In Heligo- 

 land, as well as in Germany and Italy, it is of quite regular 

 autumnal occurrence ; in England, on the other hand, only 

 solitary examples of the bird have ever been met with, and 

 these only at intervals of many years . . . ." With regard to 

 the latter remark, Herr Gatke's information is certainly not up 

 to date, for he quite overlooks the occurrence of the species in 

 North Norfolk where over a hundred were observed at ojie time. 

 In the opinion of Professor Newton, the Bluethroat probably 

 occurs on our east coast with regularity, but is, no doubt, over- 

 looked ("Dictionary of Birds "). Eeference also to Mr. Gordeaux's 

 notes in the Naturalist will prove that hardly an autumn passes 

 without one or two being observed in the Humber District; other 

 occurrences are alluded to in the reports issued by the committee 

 on the migration of birds. It has also been recorded from 

 Malaga and Valencia in Spain (Irby). One cannot help specu- 

 lating whether, if Herr Gatke had not overlooked these facts, 

 he would not have been tempted to include the Bluethroat 

 amongst the species migrating by the east-to-west route, for its 

 distribution is very similar to that of several species comprised in 

 the latter. His following remarks will afford good evidence, 

 after noting the above omissions, of the danger of attributing 

 a rigidly-maintained direction of flight to any species whatever. 

 He writes : — " It hence follows most decisively that the bird, 

 in autumn, rigidly adheres to a southerly course of migration 



