SIDE IvIGHTS ON BIRDS 



years' investigations from this station have made 

 it the most famous bird-observatory in our own 

 island group. The records from Fair Island 

 already throw light on many obscure questions, 

 and it is safe to say that a steady crop of new 

 and interesting facts will be gleaned by the bird 

 watchers now appointed to look out from this 

 isolated rock set far in our Northern Seas. 



Motives that lead to Migration. 



That vast numbers leave their summer haunts 

 because the food supply fails is obvious. But 

 what motive leads them to quit their winter 

 quarters just when the conditions of life appear 

 to be growing more favourable day by day ? 

 Why, having braved a perilous flight from Nor- 

 way, and when the temperate shores of England 

 are gained, should the fieldfare and redwing, for 

 an example, face a return journey to a land which 

 would appear to offer them no better provisions 

 than our own ? Dr. Eagle Clarke replies : — 



' ' There are several excellent reasons. Fore- 

 most among these is the well-known passionate 

 attachment shown by birds for their native lands 

 — their true home — in which the most fascinating 

 period of their lives is spent. This in itself affords 

 the stimulus to seek, at the appointed time, the 

 hallowed scenes where the all engrossing domestic 

 duties of the year await them, and have for ages 

 been performed." 



' ' Why homeward turn thy joyful wing ? 



In a far-ofE land I hear the voice of Spring : 



I found myself that mom.ent on the way : 



My wings, my wings, they had not power to stay." 



— Montgomery . 



In this respect their patriotism, as Dr. Eagle 

 Clarke points out, is curiously constant, the very 

 fields and woods which constitute home for them 



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