146 Alexander Goodman More. [i860 



more time in acknowledging the kind expressions contained in your last 

 letter. 



Did you read 's paper ? . . . As far as I can follow his 



argument, he seems to stand out for migration direct north and south, 

 admitting at the same time that climates are not so bounded. Yet, of 

 course, climate must be the great influence upon the movements of 

 birds, in the spring especially. 



I have little doubt that the Nightingale, in avoiding the W. and 

 N.W. of England, simply shuns in its nidipetal migration the damp or 

 foggy or rainy climate ; and I think it has occurred in Cornwall on the 

 autumnal migration when food enters more into the causes of the 

 movement. 



Again, is it not rather unphilosophical to resort to the accidents of 

 winds driving birds from their course ? when the same species occur 

 year after year in equally scanty numbers ; and when the autumn 

 winds usually blow from the west. I believe these " wintering summer- 

 visitors " find their way by instinct and not by accident, though, of 

 course, we only feel the outskirts or eddies of the great migratory 

 streams. You will see how much stress I should lay upon the birds 

 working their way against the wind at both periods of migration, 

 because the temperature they are in search of is brought down to 

 them by the wind. . . . Yours very sincerely, 



A. G. MORE. 



Mr. Newton about this time wished to present him with 

 a book, and thought a botanical one would please him 

 best. 



BEMBRIDGE, 

 Tuesday, May 8th, 1860. 



MY DEAR NEWTON, Pray, "herb me no herbs"; they are dry, 

 dry, dusty things, and not to be thought of in comparison with birds. 

 Surely the physician who prescribed a change of diet to such good 

 purpose should be at no loss how to promote his patient's cure. 



What guerdon would be more prized than the volume itself of "Ibis," 

 both as a pledge of the kindly feelings which you have expressed on 

 behalf of the fraternity, and as a remembrance of my first success as a 

 reviewer in zoology. Of course you would add a modest little inscrip- 

 tion on the title-page, after the style of the botanists, who send their 

 works to each other as " viro celeberrimo, C. C. Babington," &c., &c. ; 



and I promise you it would be the most valued volume on my shelves.* 



******** 



Your opinion as to the knowledge of species being only preliminary 

 to further studies is exactly my own. It is in fact getting possession 

 first of the key only, or learning the mere language before we reach 



* This position was afterwards held by his "Newton's Yarrell. 



