RANGE AND MIGRATIONS. 
19 
• ... If during this period a southerly wind and rain 
prevails, they alight, whereas fine weather tempts them to 
continue their progress.The greater part are 
then seen to fly very high, and to keep their course direct to 
the east.The black-breasted plover ((?. Virgini- 
cus ) is the most numerous. The male appears about the 25th 
of August, and the female (young?) which is called in 
Barbadoes the ‘white-breast plover,’ after the flight of the 
males has ceased, about the middle of September.” Here 
is a partial list of the migrants that come to the islands: 
“ Squatarola helvetica , Linn.; G. Virginicus , Borck.; C. 
semipalmatus, Kaup.; Strepsilas interpres, Linn.; Nume- 
nius hudsonicus , Lath.; Numenius borealis , Gml. ; Totanus 
Jlavipes , Gml ; Totanus chloropygius , Vieill.; Tringoides 
macularius, Gray ; Tringa bartramia, Wils.; Tring a canu- 
tus, Linn.; Tringa pectoralis , Say; Tringa pusilla, Wils.; 
Macrorhamphusgriseus, Leach; Gallinago Wilsoni , Bon.” 
On departing from the Windward Islands the birds take an 
easterly direction, which would, if persisted in, carry them 
to the coast of Africa—in fact it is a prevailing opinion 
among the inhabitants that the birds do go to that continent, 
nor do we presume the distance would be an insurmountable 
barrier. Other considerations oppose the conjecture. They 
would be likely there to meet allied European species and 
fraternize with them, and either be carried there or bring 
back those they met, and in course of time lose their iden¬ 
tity ; nor is any such return flight ever witnessed. The 
reason of their taking an easterly course in setting out upon 
the long voyage is, probably, to overcome drift of the “trade 
winds.” If they are to reach Guiana, or even pass Cape St. 
Rogue, a distance of two thousand miles, with a quartering 
current of fifteen knots on setting out, they must start up 
into the wind or they will impinge the continent far to the 
westward of their objective point. Any one who has ever 
seen a skillful oarsman cross a rapid stream must have ob¬ 
served that he always heads his boat up stream in starting, 
or he would reach the opposite shore far below the place in¬ 
tended. But the birds, in their migrations, are not circum- 
