The Scottish Natural 



No. 7.] 1912 [Ju 



LV 



ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY BIRD-MIGRATION 

 INQUIRY: FIRST INTERIM REPORT (1909-12). 



By A. Landsborough Thomson, M.A., M.B.O.U. 



I. General and Introductory. 



The Aberdeen University Bird-Migration Inquiry was 

 founded early in 1909, for the purpose of prosecuting study 

 by means of the " marking method," which had proved so 

 successful on the Continent, but was at that time unknown 

 in the British Isles except on a very restricted scale. I 

 have carried on the inquiry as a piece of research from the 

 Natural History Department of the University, under the 

 supervision of Professor J. Arthur Thomson, and with a 

 grant from the Carnegie Trustees to cover the working 

 expenses. My friends Mr James Ewing, M.A., B.Sc, and 

 Mr Lewis N. G. Ramsay, M.A., have rendered invaluable 

 assistance in the "headquarters" work of the Inquiry. We 

 are also indebted to over two hundred ladies and gentlemen 

 who have taken part in the actual " marking " of birds, as 

 well as to the many correspondents who have kindly informed 

 us of "reappearances." I should also like to express my 

 thanks to Dr J. Thienemann, of the German Ornithological 

 Society's observation-station at Rossitten, where I first learnt 

 the details of the method in 1908, paying a second visit in 

 1910. 



This First Interim Report includes details of all the 

 records obtained by our Inquiry up to the time of writing, 

 prefaced by an outline of our methods. A few of our earlier 

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