1896.] Proceedings of Irish Societies. 19 



in digging for worms, which was urged by Weismann as a case of an 

 acquired character which is not transmitted. The meaning of the 

 unpigmented feathers in the young Rook was discussed. The presence 

 of these white feathers was first observed by Mr. T. H. Gurney, of 

 Norwich. 



Bei^fast Naturai, History and Phii^osophicai, Society. 



November 5th, — The opening meeting of the seventy-fifth session 

 was held in the Museum. There was a large attendance of members 

 and friends. 



Mr. Robert IvI.oyd Patterson, F.L.S., President of the Society, in 

 opening the proceedings, said his thanks were due to his fellow-members 

 of the Council for electing him again their President. 



The Honorary Secretary (Mr. R. M. YouNG, B.A.), announced the 

 receipt of several donations to the Museum, and a cordial vote of thanks 

 was accorded the donors. 



The President then proceeded to deliver an address on the Migration 

 of Birds, which was effectively illustrated by a large series of special 

 photo-lantern slides, shown by Mr. A. R. Hogg. Mr. Patterson com- 

 menced his paper by stating that of the large number of birds which 

 have now — many of them, in his opinion, wrongly — been placed on the 

 British list, some are mere accidental stragglers; and others, although met 

 with regularly, do not occur with sufficient frequency to be called 

 common ; so that the number of different species of our well-known 

 every-day birds is probably considerably below 200. Of these some occur 

 only in summer, and others again only in winter, these two sub-divisions 

 going to form the division of migratory birds ; as compared with the 

 other division, the permanent residents. The lecturer next proceeded 

 to point out that even among our so-called permanently resident birds 

 migration prevails to a large extent ; and he illustrated this by reference 

 to the habits of the Curlew, the Starling, the Skylark, and others. The 

 questions of what began the migration movement and what leads to its 

 continuance were next discussed at some length, and the theories of 

 different authorities on the subject alluded to in detail. He next pro- 

 ceeded to give a comprehensive sketch of the great migratory movement 

 — " the mystery of migration," as he not inaptly termed it— as observed 

 in various places, paying a high compliment to Mr. Seebohm and Mr. 

 Harvie-Brown for their investigations in this direction. Mr Seebohm 

 he alluded to most particularly as having undertaken a journey of over 

 15,000 miles to the mouth of one of the great Siberian rivers— the 

 Yenesay, falling into the Arctic Ocean— in his endeavours to track some 

 of our migrants to their summer homes. The scenes witnessed by the 

 intrepid travellers were graphically described, and were admirably 

 illustrated by the lantern-slides. Migration in the United Kingdom, 

 but in Ireland in particular, and in Continental Europe, was next 

 alluded to, the lecturer concluding with a description of the wonderful 

 migration which occurs in Heligoland , as recorded in a recently-pub- 

 lished translation of the great work on the birds of that island by a 



