JUL i 



Natural Science 



A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress 



June 1899 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Ornithological Amenities. 



Mr. Eagle Clarke, whose work on bird migration lias won for him 

 a high reputation even beyond the wide circle of ornithologists, relates 

 an interesting though deplorable experience in a recent paper on 

 "Ushant as an ornithological station" (Ibis, April 1899, pp. 246-270). 

 Ushant appeared to him to lie not only at the diverging point where 

 all those migrants which traverse the southern (French) shores of the 

 Channel and the western coast of France change their course to proceed 

 east or south, according to the season, but also to lie in the course of 

 those birds of passage which, having skirted the western and southern 

 coast-lines of Britain, take their departure from our south-western 

 shores and wing their way northward to their winter -quarters, 

 reversing this route in spring. In other words, Ushant is " an islet 

 amid the two main streams of that vast tide of migrants which flows 

 northward in the spring, and ebbs southward in the autumn, along the 

 shores of western Europe." Nothing appeared to be known con- 

 cerning the island ornithologically, and it was therefore natural that 

 Mr. Eagle Clarke and his friend Mr. T. G. Laidlaw should have looked 

 forward with expectation to their visit to the island. 



As a matter of fact, a remarkable and unexpected experience 

 awaited them, which compelled them to fall back on Alderney. We 

 shall let Mr. Eagle Clarke tell his story. 



" At Ushant we had hoped to remain for several weeks, but we 

 had barely been six days on the island when an immigrant in blue 

 and white arrived : to wit, a sergeant of gendarmes (there are no police 

 on the island). He incessantly dogged our footsteps at close quarters 

 during our rambles, while our place of abode was under his surveillance 

 early and late ; and although we were not disposed at first to take any 

 notice of his presence, the espionage at length became so intolerable 

 that we reported the matter to the British Consul at Brest, and 

 requested him to protest to the French authorities against the vexatious 

 treatment to which we were being subjected. This the Consul most 

 obligingly did, but his efforts were unavailing, for the authorities 

 29 — nat. sc. — voi,. xiv. no. 88. 421 



