442 INTRODUCTION TO NATURALIST’S CALENDAR. 
localities, and in various years and circumstances; and however 
interesting the task, it would entail much time and labour to reduce 
them to any available order. If, then, the more important points 
in the economy of our native species could be registered on some 
simultaneous and regular plan, interesting information and details 
might be elicited, and an insight into the laws which regulate their 
motions and changes, be in a short time obtained. 
For the above purpose, a set of Tables have been prepared for 
the present, the concluding number of the “ Contributions for 1848,” 
in such time as will enable the month of January'with the whole 
year to be observed and registered; and accompanying the 
number there is a duplicate copy printed on thin paper and with 
printed address, which it is requested may be filled up and posted 
in the first week of January, 1850, when, if health and circumstances 
permit, a summary of the registers and observations returned will 
be drawn up and printed with an early succeeding number. 
For the better filling up of these tables, the following observations 
may not be inappropriate :— 
The tables and lists of species have been drawn up, as far as 
possible, to suit any locality; at the same time many omissions 
may have been made which experience in a future year may 
remedy, and there may be many things inserted which are not 
applicable, and may appear useless in certain districts. Thus, 
the return filled up in Orkney will produce a very different 
appearance from one made in the middle or southern districts 
of England. 
In these returns it will be very desirable to know the elevation 
above the sea as nearly as possible; to have a general register of 
the temperature and weather, with a short description of the 
character of the country and its vegetation around the localities 
where the observations are made. In the curious and interesting 
subject of migration, particular attention is desired. The average 
temperature at the times of appearance and departure ; the direction 
of the wind; the general character of the weather; the condition 
and ‘progress of vegetation, should all be observed. It might be 
supposed that the arrival of the migratory species in other countries 
would be influenced more by the climate of that from which they 
departed than of that to which they came; that an earlier frost or 
mild weather, would have the effect of driving them away or 
inducing them to prolong their departure ; in this country, however, 
though a cold autumn has an evident effect on the time of the 
