76 THE NATUEALIST IN BERMUDA. 



■which arrived from the north, and were precisely similar to 

 the golden plover which visits the Bermudas. My in- 

 formant stated, that on one occasion, when the weather was 

 dark and stormy, these plover made their appearance ia 

 such multitudes at St. John's, the chief town of the colony, 

 that the inhabitants wer? seen, in every direction, shooting 

 them from their doors and windows ; indeed, so numerous 

 were they, that boys destroyed them with sticks and stones, 

 and shooting them soon ceased to be considered sport. He 

 added, that in ordinary seasons, the plover are not seen in 

 such immense numbers, although they never failed to be 

 very abundant. They remained in the island for ten or 

 fifteen days only, taking their departure as soon as the 

 weather became settled. 



Another gentleman, who had resided in Martinique, gave 

 the same account of the golden plover in that island, 

 stating, at the same time, that it was impossible to exag- 

 gerate the numbers which sometimes appeared there. 



Sir Eobert Schomberg mentions, in his History of 

 Barbadoes, that during a south-west gale which prevailed 

 at that island on the morning of the 12th of Sept., 1846, 

 the flights of wild birds were so numerous, that they were 

 struck down with stones, and thousands were shot, and the 

 Barbadoes newspapers asserted that there had not been so 

 great a flight since the storm of 1780. What these "wild 

 birds " were, the author does not state, but there can be no 

 doubt that he alludes to the golden plover of America. 

 Now, I have already shown that an immense flight of these 

 birds passed to the eastward of the Bermudas on the 10th 

 of that month, and during the ensuing night. If, then, we 

 suppose these birds to travel at the moderate speed of thirty 



