ri 
themselves; the Swallows, the Cuckoo and the Turtle Dove, on the 
other hand, wing their way across in broad day-light. 
Besides the regular migration of certain species,.a remarkable 
shifting of locality occurs with others, not only in our own, but in 
many other parts of the world, the cause of which is totally unknown. 
Starlings are now very abundant in Cornwall, and Missel-Thrushes 
in Scotland—in which they were formerly not to be seen. 
Such interchanges of locality are doubtless occasionally due to alter- 
ations in the face of the country: but this was not the cause in the 
case of Cornwall; for no county can have undergone less alteration ; 
as it was in the days of Julius Cesar so it is now, unless we except 
the operations of mining, which naturally only affect the surface 
of a district to a small extent. The sudden appearance of Pallas’s 
Sandgrouse (Syrrhaptes paradowus) in our islands and on various 
parts of the Continent, in 1859-60, must be in the recollection of 
every one. ‘This irruption of a strange bird from the distant country 
of Siberia, perhaps from China, was very astonishing; and it well 
illustrates my meaning, which may be further exemplified by the 
mention of two similar occurrences in Australia. In the year 1839 
the whole of the southern and eastern portions of that country was 
suddenly visited by millions of the little Grass Parrakeet (Melopsit- 
tacus undulatus); and a year or two later swarms of a species of 
Water-hen (Zribonya ventralis) spread themselves like a cloud over 
the Swan- River district, destroying fields of corn and garden-produce 
and committing ravages unheard of before ; and both these species 
have kept their hold until the present day, but of course in much 
smaller numbers. Although not necessarily bearing upon the pre- 
ceding remarks, it may be here mentioned that young birds appear 
to wander further from their native homes during the first autumn 
or year of their existence than they do afterwards, going out, as it 
were, to see the world before settling down for the proper business of 
further shows that the electric telegraph has not wholly deprived us of the use- 
fulness of the Carrier Pigeon. The communication alluded to runs as follows :— 
“ Srr,-—The promoters of the system of electric telegraphy insist on its im- 
mense superiority over the older plan of pigeon-despatches. How far these 
pretensions are founded on facts is shown by the results of the pigeon-race to 
Brussels, which started from the Crystal Palace on Thursday last, when 72 birds 
were flown at noon. Immediately on their departure I telegraphed to the secre- 
tary of the society whose members had forwarded the birds, announcing their 
departure. The first birds arrived in Brussels at 5.28 p.m., and the telegram at 
5.30 P.M. 
“ Another example, and I hayedone. During the Crimean War the intelligence 
was conveyed to Colombo, Ceylon, 70 miles north of Point de Galle, where the 
ships to India landed their despatches, and the salute fired on the news of the 
fall of Sebastopol resulted from information brought by them. The electric 
telegraph was established, and the pigeon-post abolished. I have recently been 
requested to restock Colombo with Belgian “ voyageurs,” as the information 
brought by the electric wire is neither so speedy nor so correct as that conveyed 
by the birds. The Prussians, wise in their generation, have taken lessons from 
the Parisians, and established pigeon-posts in Metz and their other fortified 
towns. In the event of a war in which we may be engaged, what would be the 
value of birds that would convey messages to Jersey, Guernsey, &c., when the 
telegraphic wires had been cut by the enemy ? W. B. TEGETMEIER,” 
