lO The Irish Naturalist. [Jan., 



THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 

 Abstract of the British Association Committee's Report. 



BY J. E. PALMER. 



The British Association Cominittee appointed to enquire into 

 the subject of the Migration of Birds, after recording the 

 observ^ations made by the lighthouse and lightship keepers 

 around our coasts for eight years, has now systematised and 

 tabulated these observations in such a way as to give clear and 

 good results. The labour has been enormous, for it was 

 necessary to schedule more than one hundred thousand dis- 

 tinct observations in five different ways. This task was 

 undertaken by Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, to whom the other 

 members of the Committee express their deep sense of obli- 

 gation. The Committee also express their indebtedness to 

 the lighthouse authorities, and especially to the lightkeepers, 

 whose intelligent co-operation made the work possible. As 

 it is nearly twenty years since the Committee was first ap- 

 pointed, its personnel has undergone some change. It now 

 consists of Professor Newton (Chairman), Mr. Jno. Cordeaux 

 (Secretary), Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown, Mr. R. M. Barrington, 

 Mr. W. E. Clarke, and Rev. E. P. Knubley. The first 

 four were original members of the Committee, as was the late 

 Mr. A. G. More. As the Report is a long one it is necessary 

 to omit here man}^ details and minor points of interest. I 

 purpose giving its substance, omitting no fact or deduction of 

 importance, and keeping to the language of the Report as far 

 as is consistent wdth sufficient condensation. It is perhaps 

 more convenient to explain that the wording of the Report is 

 largely used than to overcrowed the pages with quotation 

 marks. 



The Report states that the object of the enquiry was to 

 obtain full and reliable data as to the migratory movements of 

 birds observed on the coasts of the British Isles ; and that 

 there is now established, as regards Great Britain and Ireland, 

 a firm basis for a sound conception of many of the phenomena 

 of bird-migration, for it contains a plain statement of ascer- 

 tained facts, and is free from theory or speculation. Much 

 however yet remains to be learned from the observations 

 collected ; and the subject of inland migration is still un- 



