340 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



beat it until it is killed," by the counter-statement that he 

 had " never seen a kingfisher take its food otherwise than by 

 swallowing it whole while yet upon the wing." He watch- 

 ed, in 1873, the belted kingfisher for eighty-three days, see- 

 ing it dive one hundred and sixty-six times, " and either every 

 plunge was unsuccessful, or the bird swallow r ed, before alight- 

 ing, every fish he had taken." In 1874 he saw them dive 

 about four hundred times, and in eighty-six instances the 

 bird beat the fish against the limb on which it stood before 

 swallowing it. 



THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS. 



Monsieur Marey has made a series of observations which 

 prove how important a part the onward movement of a bird 

 plays in increasing the efficiency of each stroke of the wing ; 

 for, supposing that in its descent the wing did not continu- 

 ally come in contact with a fresh volume of air, it would act 

 at a disadvantage, because the downward impulse, which at 

 the commencement of each stroke it gives to the air below, 

 would make that air, by so much, a less efficient resisting 

 medium ; while by continually coming in contact with a 

 fresh body of air, the wing is always acting on it to the best 

 advantage. For this reason, when a bird commences its 

 flight it turns toward the wind, if possible, to make up for its 

 lack of motion on starting. 12 A, IX., 1874, 390. 



PROFESSOR ALFRED NEWTON ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



The desire to refute what he considers a very absurd 

 theory in the London Times as to the migration of birds 

 has induced Professor Alfred Newton, the well-known orni- 

 thologist, to address to Nature a communication on the sub- 

 ject of the migration of birds. He stigmatizes as absurd the 

 idea, advanced by the writer in question, that birds, congre- 

 gating on the coast, are seized with a sudden mania to fly 

 upward, caused, as he supposes, by some atmospheric change 

 coinciding with the warm south wind moving in a high stra- 

 tum, into which the birds soar with an involuntary motion 

 of their wings. This motion, involuntary like that of the 

 heart, is continued for many hours, and the birds fly swiftly 

 along until the paroxysm passes off, when they at once begin 

 to descend, many of the feeble ones dropping into the sea. 



