74 THE NATURALIST IN BEEMUDA. 



October 18th, 1848. J. E. Place, master of the schooner 

 '' Norman," just arrived from Halifax, Nova Scotia, informs 

 me that on his passage hence to that port, about the 12th 

 of September, ultimo, in long. 68'30 W, and lat. 37., he fell 

 in with " vast numbers " of plover, in flocks numbering 

 from thirty to a thousand each, all flying due south by 

 compass ; weather moderate at the time. He furthur 

 states that he could hear numerous flocks passing over his 

 vessel in the night of the above-mentioned day, that he 

 does not think there was anything easterly in the flight of 

 these birds, and that he expected to hear that Bermuda had 

 been teeming with them; This flight, however, did not pass 

 over or visit the Bermudas. 



September 5th, 1849. Mr. Samuel Nehnes, one of the 

 oldest sea-going navigators of these Islands, told me to-day, 

 as he cleared out his schooner for Prince Edward Island, 

 that, when commanding the brigantine " Carib " twelve or 

 thirteen years ago, on a voyage from London to the Ber- 

 mudas, and sailing in the latitude of those Islands, in the 

 month of September, with fair breezes and a continuation 

 of remarkably fine weather, the vessel sailing four and five 

 knots only, and the Bermudas distant between four and five 

 hundred miles, he fell in with endless flocks of plover, all 

 flying in a south-east direction. ' 



On referring to the Custom House records, I found that 

 this voyage was performed in the year 1833, the date of 

 the master's report at the Custom House, in Hamilton, 

 being the 14th September. It is therefore evident that the 

 vast flight of plover he alludes to must have crossed the 

 latitude of the Bermudas on or about the 10th of Septem- 

 ber, at the distance of upwards of a thousand mUes from 

 the nearest part of the American coast. 



