562 MIGRA TION 



jl^ the reduction of which to intelligible order is still taxing the 

 f^r ingenuity and patience of Mr. W. E. Clarke, who has undertaken 



the onerous duty. Similar observations have also been organized 

 since 1883, at stations in Denmark, and the results published by 

 Prof. Liitken and HH. Oluf and Herluf Winge ; while, since 1885, 

 the example has been followed both in Germany and Russia by 

 Prof. Rudolf Blasius and Herr E. von MiddendorfF. In North 

 America a very praiseworthy piece of work was performed by 

 Prof. W. W. Cooke, whose Report en Bird Migration in the Missis- 

 sippi Valley in 1884 and 1885, based on the records furnished by 

 170 observers, of whom Mr. Otto Widman is especially to be 

 named, was edited by Dr. C. Hart Merriam.^ Some of the facts 

 herein adduced are highly suggestive, but it must be remarked 

 that on several points there is a difference of opinion between the 

 author and the editor. For instance, Prof. Cooke confirms the 

 statements of European observers as to the young birds of many 

 species preceding their parents in the autumnal movements, while 

 Dr. Merriam, trusting to some evidence which appears not yet to 

 have been published, and to the testimony of Mr. W. Brevfster,- 

 declares to the contrary effect. As the European experience on 

 this point is indisputable, and a good deal depends .upon it, we 

 trust that the matter will eventually be cleared up. 



But the result of all these efforts, good as they are, may be 

 said to pale before the stupendous amount of information amassed 

 during more than fifty years by the venerable Herr Gatke of 

 Heligoland, a place which through his watchfulness has attained 

 celebrity as a post of observation quite beyond any other in the 

 world, so that ornithologists may at times wonder whether the man 

 made the station or the station the man — so' fitted have they been 

 for one another. It is to be hoped that his work ^ will one day 

 appear in an English version, for until then its contents will 

 remain unknown to most British-and North- American ornithologists. 

 On the author's theories we would offer but few remarks. It is 

 his conviction that of effective and successful Migration we see 

 but little, as it is for the most part carried on at such a height in 

 the air as to be beyond our ken, and what comes to our perception 



correspondence deserves the thanks of every ornithologist. Beside this it was he 

 and Mr. Harvie-Bro^vn who in 1879 initiated the light-house enquiry, afterwards 

 adopted by the British Association, and obtained for it the countenance of the 

 official authorities. 



^ U. S. Bciiartmcnt of Agriculture. Division of Economic Ornithology, 

 Bulletin No. 2. Washington : 1888. 



- Memoirs of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, No. 1. Cambridge, Mass. : 1886. 



^ Die Vogelwarte Helgoland. Braunschweig: 1891. A brief summary of the 

 least interesting part of this volume, being hardly more than a list of the species 

 that have been observed on the island, is printed in The Ibis for 1892, pp. 1-32. 



