MIGRATION HYPOTHESES 187 



matter of discussion between my companion and myself. 

 He considered that maritime birds that feed principally 

 when the tide falls, have consequently a periodical dining- 

 hour and a special dining-room, and therefore get into 

 the habit of flocking together at dinner-time. I remained 

 still of the opinion that birds of the same species were 

 breeding not far off, probably on the coast between 

 Bolvanskaya Bay and Varandai, or it might be on the 

 Pytkoff mountains. We had also many debates concern- 

 ing the probable line of migration followed by the grey 

 plover, the Little stint, the curlew sandpiper, and the 

 sanderling ; and in this we began to question the usually 

 received theory that these birds migrate up the Baltic and 

 along the coast of N orway to their breeding haunts. My 

 own notion had long been that birds migrate against the 

 prevailing winds ; that they migrate to their breeding- 

 ground in a narrow stream, returning from them in a 

 broad one. If these birds, therefore, winter on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean, they probably leave by way 

 of the Black Sea, cross by the Sea of Azov to the Volga 

 near Sarepta, follow the Volga to Kasan, thence along 

 the Kama to Perm, then over the low hills of the Ural to 

 the Ob, and so on to the Arctic Ocean. Some breed 

 near the mouth of the Ob, others on the eastern or the 

 western coast. The stragglers who wander off as far as 

 Archangel and the North Cape may be barren birds with 

 nothing else to do. 



After starting this hypothesis we bethought ourselves 

 that we had with us a list of the birds of Kasan, in a 

 book lent to us by M. Znaminski. These chapters are 

 headed " Materials for making a Biography of the Birds 

 of the Volga," and the work itself is entitled, " Descriptive 

 Catalogues of the High School of the Imperial University 

 at Kasan," edited by MM. Kovalevski, Levakovski, 



