Book News and Reviews 



461 



proven by the later experiments recorded 

 in this paper. 



The number of birds returning from any 

 given point of release was found to depend 

 primarily upon their condition when start- 

 ing. Terns do not take kindly to captivity, 

 and the special fish they require as food 

 cannot always be obtained. It was not 

 until the latter part of the time covered 

 by the experiments here recorded that 

 methods for the satisfactory transportation 

 of the Terns were evolved. We give, 

 therefore, in the appended table only the 

 results attending the last experiment 

 when twelve Noddies and six Sooties were 

 released on the route from Key West to 

 Galveston, at distances varying from 418 

 to 855 miles from Bird Key: 



possession by birds of a sense of direc- 

 tion. 



Dr. Watson himself accepts this as 

 proven, and he turns now from the more 

 purely ornithological part of his researches 

 to an effort to locate the sensory factors 

 involved. 



The results of his first experiments in 

 this direction are here presented in a paper 

 entitled 'Studies on the Spectral Sensi- 

 tivity of Birds,' in which it is shown that 

 the theory that homing animals possess 

 retinas sensitive to extremel}^ long wave- 

 lengths, and consequently might find their 

 way to a distant goal by sight, is without 

 foundation. 



Dr. Watson proposes to continue his 

 search for the seat of the homing function; 



It thus appears that, out of twenty- 

 four birds released, thirteen returned, 

 three of these having flown from Galveston, 

 a distance of 855 miles. The water lying 

 between Galveston and the Tortugas is 

 not marked by islet, shoal, or reef and 

 this experiment, in connection with the 

 others conducted by Dr. Watson, estab- 

 lishes beyond all reasonable doubt the 



but whether or not he discovers it, his 

 contributions to the more objective study 

 of bird migration have placed bird stud- 

 ents deeply in his debt, not alone for what 

 he has accomplished, but for the models he 

 has set them of methods which may be 

 profitably employed in the study of the 

 life of birds. His papers should be e.xamined 

 by all serious students of birds. — F. M. C, 



