250 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



ful wings that will fling the little body far outside the 

 shot's pattern — ' fling,' for that expresses just what these 

 wings and what the 'cock's strong thighs and legs can do 

 to win its safety." 



In 1909, 2,200 birds were marked with the " British 

 Birds " rings, and during last summer 7,900 were marked 

 with these rings. Of course, it is impossible to map out 

 any migration routes on two seasons' returns, but it 

 appears that the black-headed gulls marked in Cumber- 

 land migrate south down both the east and the west 

 coasts. From the west coast birds have been recovered 

 all down the Lancashire coast, and from Cheshire down 

 to the Bristol Channel, as shown by two returns from 

 Newport (Mon.) and the Severn in Gloucestershire, and 

 then across the English Channel, as shown by two returns 

 from France, in Finisterre and Brittany. 



The lesser black-backed gull seems to migrate to the 

 Mediterranean, as the only three returns from birds 

 marked are all foreign ones, being from the mouth of 

 the Loire in France and from Portugal. The migra- 

 tion of the common tern or sea-swallow seems also to be 

 south to the Mediterranean and further by both coasts, 

 as birds marked in Cumberland have been recovered 

 from Morecambe Bay and the Lancashire coast, and also 

 from the Solway and Berwickshire, two rings being also 

 returned from Spain and Portugal respectively. 



These are instances of results obtained in this coun- 

 try. Bird ringing is much more advanced on the Con- 

 tinent, and there the results have been most valuable. 

 The Germans have an ornithological station as Rossit- 

 ten, on the Baltic, of which Dr. Thieneman is the 

 director. Dr. Otto Herman is the director of the Hun- 

 garian Central Bureau, whose headquarters are at 

 Budapest, while in Denmark Herr Mortensen officiates 

 at Viborg, and at all these stations bird marking is car- 

 ried on on a large scale. 



From birds marked at the Rossitten and Viborg stations 

 the migration of the white stork hence in the autumn 

 has been determined, and a line can be drawn across 

 Europe, passing through Tunis in North Africa, Lake 



