1 24 Transactions of the [Sess. 



The subject of migration, we are glad to know, has been for several 

 years, and still is, engaging the attention and research of the British 

 Association, and a committee has been formed for elucidating the 

 matter, of which a gentleman well known to many of us, Mr Harvie 

 Brown, is a most active and efficient member. This committee is in 

 communication with the coastguard service and the keepers of light- 

 houses on our coasts, and is bringing to light many curious and pre- 

 viously unknown facts, especially that some of our birds, which are 

 residents with us throughout the year, in certain places and under 

 certain circumstances migrate m enormous numbers. Two of these 

 are the Jay, and the smallest of British birds, the Gold-crested 

 Eegulus. At the recent meeting of the Association, it was stated 

 that migrations of the latter species had been observed last autumn 

 in twenty-one stations, comprising, amongst others, the Faroe Islands, 

 the Isle of May, and Guernsey. ]\Ir Garrioch stated that on the 

 9th October very large flocks of these diminutive birds, with a few 

 Fire-crests, were seen crossing the island of Bressay ; and Mr Gatke 

 remarks that at Heligoland, on the 28th October, to use his own 

 words, " we had a perfect storm of Gold-crests perching on the 

 ledges of the window-panes of the lighthouse, and preening their 

 feathers in the glare of the lamps. On the nights of the 28th and 

 29th the whole island swarmed with them, filling the gardens and 

 over all the cliff, hundreds of thousands of them. By 9 a.m. on the 

 30th, most of them had passed on again." It is gratifying to hear 

 that these pretty little birds, generally seen here only in twos and 

 threes, exist elsewhere in such vast numbers. 



But to return to the Swallows — that pleasing writer, Edward 

 Jesse, in his ' Country Life,' gives a very graphic account of some 

 Swallows reared by hand, which I think may be interesting. He 

 says : — 



" Some years ago three Swallows fell down one of my chimneys. Their 

 naked and helpless condition having excited the pity of my family, it was 

 determined to endeavour to rear them : I therefore became their foster- 

 parent. On rainy days they were fed with egg, and in sunny weather with 

 various species of flies. I found it, however, a very diflBcult task to supply 

 them with a sufficient number. I could only do so by sweeping the heads of 

 umbelliferous plants with my fly-net. All the Swallow tribe continue m 

 their nests a long time before they take their first flight, but I was anxious 

 that my protdti^s should exercise their wijigs as soon as possible, and thus 

 prepare themselves for emigration. I therefore threw them into the air as 

 soon as I could do so prudently. At first they appeared much alarmed, and 

 clung to the nearest object they could fasten upon, but in a few days they 

 not only flew about but caught their food expertly. Some time, however, 

 elapsed before they could satisfy the cravings of appetite through their own 

 exertions. This occasioned them frequently to appeal to me for assistance in 

 a manner too intelligible to be mistaken. They would utter a plaintive cry 

 in flying around me, and sometimes settle on me. On these occasions I 

 usually led to those places where the Asters abounded, from the flowers of 

 which I easily captured various species of Syrplii in the hollow of my hand. 



