234 ELBMBNTS OP OENITHOLOGT. 



The extreme punctuality of Birds in their migrations is often 

 very remarkable. This is especially the ease with "Water Birds. 

 Whatever may be the weather, the Puffin has been noted as 

 arriving on the very day it was, from previous experience, 

 anticipated. 



The motive of the return northwards is more mysterious 

 than the impulse which drives Birds south. The latter may be 

 explicable by growing scarcity of food. The former can as 

 yet be only regarded as the result of an instinctive longing to 

 return to a wonted haunt. The accuracy and perseverance of 

 this return has often been observed, but never better than by 

 Professor Newton. He tells * us : "A pair of Stone-Curlews 

 ((Edienemus crepitans) — a very migratory species, affecting 

 almost exclusively the most open country — were in the habit 

 of breeding for many years on the same spot though its 

 character had undergone a complete change. It had been part 

 of an extensive and barren rabbit-warren, and was become the 

 centre of a large and flourishing plantation." 



It appears that migrating birds often pass along the coasts 

 of countries which lie in their line of march. Thus it is said t 

 that some skirt the west coast of Norway as they pass from 

 Siberia to us. Eiver-courses are also preferentially followed. 

 Others leave Northern Russia, skirt the Gulf of Finland to 

 Holland, then pass by the Valleys of the Ehine, and along the 

 coasts of France and Spain, to Africa. 



The way in which migration is accomplished remains still 

 unexplained. It has been said to be due to past " experience " 

 of landmarks, but how can that guide birds in their first year 

 that do not migrate in companies ? How can it account for the 

 great distances of sea which are so often successfully traversed ? 



There are some Birds which migrate irregularly, as do the 

 Crossbills, Nutcrackers, and "Waxwings. Sometimes birds from 

 distant regions make their appearance in strange localities, as 

 do, e. g., American birds in Norfolk and Suffolk. Sometimes, 

 also, a migration takes place comparable with the invasion of 

 Europe by the Huns. Such an example we have in Pallas's 

 Sand-grouse, which before 1863 was only known as an inhabitant 

 of the plains of Tartary, but which has now come to establish 

 itself in Europe and once ai; least actually bred in England. 



" Ency. Brit, Article "Birds," p. 766. 



t See Palmfin's ' Om Fylarnes flyttingsvagar ' (Helsingfors, 1874), 



