An American Bird
When you feel the force of the west wind on this exposed coast you no longer wonder at the claims that both butterflies and birds have • flown the Atlantic. Among the treasures of one fishing lodge on the coast of Mayo is an American pectoral
sandpiper shot by mistake for a snipe, ruddy breasted and sharp-beaked. A bird so light on the wing, if blown out to sea, would have no alternative but to fly on as the wind commanded ; and a bird so quick on the wing would not make heavy weather of the journey. The same. suppositions would apply with at least as great force to the Monarch butter- flies that continually land on the West Coast of England. Both the bird and the butterfly are natural migrants, that think nothing of a journey of a thousand and more miles when no winds help • and conditions are normal. Incidentally sandpipers of other sorts are the commonest birds of the seashore. The sands are patterned with their feet and the air is full of- their plaintive piping.
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