THE PROCESS OF MIGRATION 131 



to investigate. Birds, as shown, travel far above the 

 utmost range of our vision. The two considerations, 

 taken together, indicate the direction whence a final 

 solution of present perplexities may be sought — and 

 found. 



A Note on Migration. — While these pages are passing through the 

 press, my attention was arrested, during a meeting of the British Ornitholo- 

 gists' Club (London, November 20th, 1906), by certain simple facts stated by 

 my friend, Mr W. Eagle Clarke of Edinburgh ; for these facts clearly point 

 the conclusion that we yet overlook much. During two successive autumn 

 sojourns on Fair Isle (Shetland), Mr Clarke met in quite considerable 

 numbers, with species which are practically unknown on the adjacent main- 

 land — such as, for example, the Lapland Bunting. 



Now Fair Isle is a mere rock, two miles by one, with some 300 

 acres of tillage. It lies midway between Orkney and Shetland, about 25 

 miles from either. Yet neither in Orkney or in Shetland, nor anywhere else 

 in Scotland, have Lap Buntings been recorded during the whole of the two 

 years in question ! The conclusion is irresistible — that, although skilled 

 ornithological observation can detect on barren little islets such as this 

 (or on Heligoland) the occurrence of every species that may visit them ; yet 

 that, on reaching the wider areas of the mainland, the scarcer species may 

 (and do) escape the most careful work and closest observation of number- 

 less local ornithologists. For it stands to reason that when Lap Buntings 

 pass regularly across Fair Isle, they must also reach the surrounding Orkneys 

 and Shetland, and many other North British shores ; yet in the bigger lands 

 they are not recognised — overlooked. 



