MIGRATION 93 



Shrike (Z. poineranus). The former " extends its winter range," 

 says Dr. Sharpe, " to the Cape Colony. Not so the Woodchat, 

 which goes to North-Eastern Africa and to Somaliland, but 

 then reappears in West Africa. Failing information that it 

 crosses the Sahara direct, we can only imagine that it turns 

 westward from the Nile Valley, skirts the Sahara . . . and re- 

 appears in West Africa.'' 



The most ambitious attempt to map out the migration 

 routes of European birds is that made by Professor Palmen. 

 These are nine in number. The first leaving the Siberian 

 shores of the Polar Sea, Nova Zembla and the north of Russia, 

 passes down the West Coast of Norway to the North Sea and 

 the British Islands. The second, proceeding from Spitzbergen 

 and the neighbouring islands, follows much the same course, 

 but is prolonged past France, Spain and Portugal to the West 

 Coast of Africa. The third starts from Northern Russia, and, 

 threading the White Sea and the Great Lakes of Onega and 

 Ladoga, skirts the Gulf of Finland and the southern part of 

 the Baltic to Holstein, and so to Holland, where it divides — ^one 

 branch uniting with the second main route, while the other, 

 running up the valley of the Rhine and crossing to that of the 

 Rhone, splits up on reaching the Mediterranean, where one 

 path passes down the Western Coast of Italy and Sicily, a 

 second takes the line by Corsica and Sardinia, and a third 

 follows the South Coast of France and Eastern Coast of Spain 

 — all three paths ending in North Africa. The fourth, fifth 

 and sixth main routes depart from the extreme north of Siberia. 

 The fourth ascending the river Obi, branches out near Tobolsk 

 — -one track, diverging to the Volga, descends that river and so 

 passes to the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea, and thence, by the 

 Bosphorus and ^Egean to Egypt ; another track makes for the 

 Caspian by way of the Ural River and so leads to the Persian 

 Gulf,, while two more are lost sight of on the Steppes. The 

 fifth mounts the Yennesei to Lake Baikal and so passes into 

 Mongolia. The sixth ascends the Lena and striking the Upper 

 Amoor reaches the Sea of Japan, where it co'alesces with the 

 seventh and eighth, which run from the eastern portion of Siberia 

 and Kamschatka. Besides these the ninth, starting from Green- 

 land and Iceland, passes by the Faroes to the British Islands, 

 and so joining the second and third runs down the French coast. 



