T. A. Coward

“ This long journey, roughly 2500 miles at a flight, is used in autumn by several species of American shore birds, and the particular species most easily recognised, is the American golden plover, Charadrius dominicus [7] , which differs but little from our C. pluvialis [8] . An important point to notice is that the route followed in the fall is not the one used by the bird in spring, an undoubted proof that all routes are not identical with the original line of dispersal of the species. ”

“ The custom, new fortunately becoming wide— spread, of marking birds by affixing a numbered metal ring to one leg, may help to elucidate this and many other problems, but until a large number of results are collected it is unwise to draw conclusions. Almost every month the recovery of some of these marked birds is noted in the scientific journals, but so far, beyond indicating the minimum distance travelled by individuals, little can be proved. It is, however, plain that birds do not invariably act as they ought to do if they obeyed all the laws which have been invented for them. ”

“ Waders and shore birds which reach South Africa in autumn—the spring of the Cape—are moulting into winter dress; before they leave they have often assumed or partially assumed the breeding dress. When they arrive the native South African birds are breeding, but though Mr Sclater thinks that some nest a second time in the south, no satisfactory evidence has ever been brought forward to support the suggestion. ”

“ If, then, for any species, the southern nesting birds lead the van in both fall and spring migration, and the near guard in each case is composed of northern breeding birds, it follows that some time between October and April at transposal of their relative positions occurs; and that the more southern birds pass over the more northern ones, which delay their migration, knowing that winter still holds sway in their summer dominions. ”

“ So soon as the young are able to take care of themselves the birds migrate south-east to Labrador, where for some weeks they fatten on the autumn harvest of fruits. A short journey across the Gulf of St Lawrence brings them to Nova Scotia, Where they gather before starting on their oversea flight. The eastward trip to the food-supplying districts is support of the idea, that a route is originated by passage from food-base to food-base, rather than by any hasty rush from the dangers of approaching Winter. The birds start south from Nova, Scotia for South America! ”

“ This larger bird loiters through Britain, for its northern home is not ready for it until the Arctic spring. We know it breeds farther north than our wheatear, but its winter range is not fully worked out. The smaller bird is found in north and north-western Africa, and the larger form farther east, even south of the equator on the eastern seaboard, and probably, when we know more about the range of the two we shall find that the form breeding farther north, winters farther south. ”

“ South of the Sahara to the Cape it is a winter visitor. In Asia it breeds, according to Seebohm, in Asia Minor, Persia, Afghanistan, and western Siberia, and winters in Scinde and western India. One form breeds in and north of the Himalayas, eastward to China and Japan, and Winters in India, and Burma, and another ranges from eastern Siberia, across Behring Strait throughout North America, so far south as Mexico. This form winters in Burma, in Central America and Brazil, but the Mexican birds are more or less stationary at all seasons. ”

“ Our swallow and its congeners have an almost cosmopolitan range, summering in the Northern and wintering in the Southern Hemisphere or comparatively near to the Equator in the Northern Towards the centre of its range its migrations are either short or the bird is non-migratory. ”

“ These long distance travellers not only move, from a zone of moderate temperature to a warmer one, but many of them pass through the hotter zone to a country having a similar temperature to the one in which they bred, thus enjoying summer but not torrid heat all the year round. ”

“ Birds marked as adults present further problems, but also provide interesting evidence. Hooded crows, captured on migration in spring at Rossitten and then released, have been recovered in autumn actually in the same place and in other localities in Germany, and one marked in October was taken two years later, in spring, in Finland. The sum of these records of crows proves one thing conclusively—the fallacy of Gätke's due east to west and west to east flight, and supports a coastwise migration for this species. ”

“ It is fairly certain that the original route would be roughly north and south, between Siberia, and southern Asia. In time the species spread eastward in winter, to Australia and to islands farther east, whilst the breeding area extended to Alaska. If these extensions took place before any cutting off of corners in the route, Alaska birds would travel 11,000 miles to reach the Low Archipelago, only 5000 miles in a direct air-route (No. 1) . Probably shortening began early among the Pacific islands, from the northern islands to the Asiatic coast, and finally to Japan (No. 2) . ”