XIV MIGRATION 357 
fact that the Bluethroat always arrives at dawn and 
not during the dark at the lighthouses. But though 
this may show that its flight has been a long one, it 
tells us. nothing definite about the time and place 
of starting. The non-occurrence of this particular 
Bluethroat in Germany may be due to defective 
observation. Professor Newton gives an instance of 
a bird making a flight of extraordinary length. A 
kind of Cuckoo (Eudynamis Taitensis) that is found 
almost throughout Polynesia, every year makes a 
voyage to New Zealand to breed. A glance at the 
map will show that it must pass great tracts of sea. 
Still there are small islets, such as Norfolk Island 
and the Lord Howe Islands, which it may possibly 
use as resting places. Occasionally representatives 
of American species are found in Europe and 
undoubtedly they have crossed the Atlantic, which 
has a breadth of over 2,000 miles at its narrowest 
point. They cannot have crossed the Behring Strait 
and flown over Asia to Europe, since they are hardly 
ever found in Germany. But they may have either 
rested on a ship on their way, or been borne along 
involuntarily by violent gales. Such performances 
cannot well’ be ranked with long flights voluntarily 
and habitually undertaken. Setting such exceptional 
phenomena aside, perhaps the longest known flight is 
one which I have already mentioned. The Ameri- 
can Golden Plovers breed in Arctic regions, from 
Alaska to Greenland, above the limits of forest 
growth, and when autumn comes they pass through 
Nova Scotia, strike boldly out to sea, and, generally 
leaving the Bermudas well to the west, sail on over 
