CHAP. XII.] 
BERMUDA. 
259 
northward or southward in Eastern America. A large proportion 
of these pass along the Atlantic coast, and it has been observed 
that many of them fly some distance out to sea, passing straight 
across bays from headland to headland by the shortest route. 
Now as the time of these migrations is the season of storms, 
especially the autumnal one, which nearly coincides with the- 
hurricanes of the West Indies and the northerly gales of the 
coast of America, the migrating birds are very liable to bq 
carried out to sea. Sometimes they may, as Mr. Jones suggests, 
be carried up by local whirlwinds to a great height, where meet- 
ing with a westerly or north westerly gale, they are rapidly 
driven sea- ward. The great majority no doubt perish, but some 
reach the Bermudas and form one of its most striking autumnal 
features. In October, Mr. Jones tells us, the sportsman enjoys 
more shooting than at any other time. The violent revolving 
gales, which occur almost weekly, bring numbers of birds of 
many species from the American continent, the different 
members of the duck tribe forming no inconsiderable portion 
of the whole ; while the Canada goose, and even the ponderous 
American swan, have been seen amidst the migratory host. With 
these come also such delicate birds as the American robin ( Turdus 
migratorius) , the yellow -rurnped warbler {Dendrcecci coronctta), the 
pine warbler (Dendroeca joinus) , the wood wagtail ( Siurus novcebor- 
acensis), the summer ted bird ( Pyranga cestiva), the snow-bunt- 
ing ( Plectrophanes nivalis), the red-poll (JEgiothus Unarms), the 
king bird ( Tyrannus carolinensis), and many others. It is no doubt 
in consequence of this repeated immigration that none of the 
Bermuda birds have acquired any special peculiarity constituting 
even a distinct variety ; for the few species that are resident 
and breed in the islands are continually crossed by individual 
immigrants of the same species from the mainland. 
Four European birds also have occurred in Bermuda ; — the 
wheatear ( Saxicola cenanthe), which visits Iceland and Lapland 
and sometimes the northern United States ; the skylark 
( Alauda arvensis), but this was probably an imported bird or an 
escape from some ship; the land-rail (Crex pratensis), which 
also wanders to Greenland and the United States ; and the com- 
mon snipe (Scolopax gallmago), which occurs not unfrequently 
s 2 
