TTTE 00 LO GIST. 



Atlantic and other oceans. Northern 

 Africa and Western Asia are selected as 

 winter quarters by most of the Euro- 

 pean Birds of Passage, and they may be 

 often noticed on their way thither to 

 hing over towns at night, pnzzled, in 

 spite of their experience, by the shifting- 

 lights of the streets and honses. The 

 swallow or nightingale may sometimes 

 be delayed by unexpected circumstances. 

 Yet it is rarely that they arrive or de- 

 part many days sooner or later, one year 

 with another. Pr> if. Newton considered 

 that were sea-fowl satellites revolving 

 round the earth their arrival could 

 h irdly be more surely calculated by an 

 astronomer. Foul weather or fair, heat 

 or cold, the puffins repair to some of 

 their stations i^unctualiy on a given daj^ 

 as if their movements were regulated b}^ 

 clock-work. The swiftness of flight 

 which characterizes most birds enables 

 them to cover a vast space in a brief 

 time. The common black swift can fl}^ 

 276 miles an hour, a speed which if it 

 could be maintained for less than half a 

 day, would carry the bird from its win- 

 ter to its summer quarters. The large 

 purple swift of America is capable of 

 even greater feats on the wing. The 

 chimney-swallow is slower — 90 miles per 

 hour being abouL the limit of i.s powers 

 but the passenger pigeon of the United 

 States can accompjish a journey of 1,003 

 miles between sunrise and sunset. It 

 is also true, as the ingenious Herr Pal- 

 men has attemj^ted to show, that mi 

 grants during their long flights may be 

 directed by an experience p;irtly inherit 

 ed and partly acquired by the individual 

 bird. They often follow the coast lines 

 of continents, and invariably take, on 

 their passage over the Mediterranean, 

 one of three routes. But this theory 

 will not explain how they pilot them- 

 selves across broad oceans, a:'xl is invali- 

 dated by the fact, familiar to every orni- 

 thologist, that the old and young birds 

 do not journey in company. Invaricibly, 

 the young broods travel together ; then 



come, after an interval, the parents ; and, 

 finally, the rear is brought up by the 

 weakly. This is the rule in autumn. 

 The return journey is accomplished in 

 the reverse order. The distance trav- 

 eled siaems, moreover, to have no rela- 

 tion to the size of the traveler. The 

 Swedish blue-throat performs its matei'- 

 nal functions among the Laps, and en- 

 joys its winter holiday among the ne- 

 groes of the Soudan, while the tiny 

 rubj'-throated humming-bird proceeds 

 annually from Mexico to Newfoundland 

 and back again, though one would im- 

 agine that so delicate a little fairy would 

 be more at home among the cacti and 

 agaves of the Tierra Caliente than among 

 tlie tirs and fogs of the north. — London 

 Standard. 



Oological Items. 



YELLOW BELLIED FLY-CATCHEES EGGS. 



Editor of the Oologist:— In "J. M. 

 W's" interesting article in the Oologist, 

 for Oct. & Nov. referee; ce is made to a 

 set of Yellow bellied Fly-catcher's eggs. 

 If a genuine nest of this species has 

 been found in Connecticut the fact i of 

 great interest, for we have no previous 

 record of the breeding of the species in 

 that state. But has not the printer 

 made a slip with the name ? Or perhaps 

 J. M. Ws well known accuracy is for 

 once at fault. The matter is of suffi- 

 cient importance to merit prompt sub- 

 stantiation or correction, as the facts 

 may dictate. 



WiLLL^M Brewster, Cambridge. 

 - ■* — ■ 



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