Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



379 



THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 

 Mr. J. Lewis Bonuote contributes to the Strand 

 for April a very interesting study of bird-migration. 

 He says that the subject was first studied seriously in 

 the last quarter of last century. The late Herr Giitke, 

 li^•ing in Heligoland, made observations that have 

 become classic. Giitke concluded that birds which left 

 Africa at dusk the previous evening arri\ed at ?Icligo- 

 land late in the morning, having come at the rate of 

 180 miles an hour. The idea that birds migrate to 

 escape the cold of winter is a fallacy, for the cuckoo 

 and swift lea\e in July or .\ugust, before any sign of 

 winter or scarcity of food has become apparent. The 

 birds arrive and depart with extreme regularity, inde- 

 pendent of food and seasons. That birds travel due 

 north and south is also a mistaken idea. The accom- 

 panying map shows how much the migration routes 

 differ from the popular impression. To obtain exact 

 knowledge, a system of ringing wild birds was insti- 

 tuted by Mr. C. C. Mortcnsen, at Viborg in Ucnniark, 

 and has been generally followed. Aluminium bands 

 bearing a distinctive number and address are fastened 

 to the legs of any bird that may be caught either as a 

 nestling or otherwise. The particulars are entered in a 

 schedule filed at headquarters. Birds ringed in England 

 and Scotland hu\e been recovered in Portugal, France, 

 Germany, and Norway. The storks give most striking 

 results from ringing. From Hungary to Palestine no 

 ringed storks have been secured. But from Palestine 

 four, from .Mexandria one. Blue Nile one, Victoria 

 Nyanza one, and seven from the Transvaal, Natal, 



Map Showing the Migration Routes taken by 

 well-lcnown British Birds. 



The line A shows the tratk of ihc whcatcar, whitclhroal, 

 chifTth.iff, willow Mnrliler, suallnw, saiulmarlin, hou:>c-niarlin, 

 .mil »«ifi. b, llii: 1I..UC1I iim>, is ilit- track of the yellow ^va^;lail. 

 C ihal nf the lii(;litini;alc, tree pipil, rtd-batked shrike, wry- 

 ncik, and turtle-dove. D shows the track of migrants passiiij; 

 through to the Con'.incnl. 



Basutoland, etc. No fewer than seventeen Hungarian 

 storks have been, recorded from the various localities 

 in South Africa, How birds find their wav remains a 

 mvsterv. 



A REPLY TO NORMAN ANGELL. 



By Rear-Admiral A. T. Mahan. 



In the North American Revirw for JIarch Admiral 

 Mahan flings his hat into the ring and challenges 

 Norman Angell to a battle. He says that he has read 

 " The Great Illusion " twice, and absolutely disagrees 

 with it. The Admiral says that Mr. Norman Angell 

 suffers from a great illusion himself, one of the 

 greatest of all illusions — namely, that nations go to 

 war from calculations of self-interest. 



The idea that economic advantage goes with the 

 e.\ercise of military force is, to Admiral Mahan, not an 

 illusion, but a fact. Two conspicuous instances of this 

 afforded by history are the supremacv of Great 

 Britain as a financial and industrial communitv, which 

 is due to the Battle of Trafalgar, and the economical 

 development of Germany following upon the war with 

 France in 1870-71. Leaving that, however, on one side, 

 he compiles a history in order to prove that wars are 

 chiefly waged under the influence of popular passion 

 or for moral, or immoral, reasons which have nothing 

 to do with calculations as to economic advantages. 

 The principal wars of the last half-century proceeded 

 from motives essentially moral. So far from thinking 

 that concjuest is mischievous moonshine, he considers 

 that the gratification arising from the consciousness of 

 great national achievements is not moonshine, but a 

 very solid fact. Admitting that mixed motive is the 

 rule and not the e.xception with nations, as with indi- 

 viduals, he maintains that wars so seldom result from 

 calculations of self-interest that the elimination of that 

 element would not materially reduce the necessity for 

 armaments. But although nations do not go to war 

 for self-interest, nevertheless when they ha\e gone to 

 war they have profited by it. Admiral .Mahan con- 

 cludes his article as follows : — 



.\ mature consideration of the wars of the past sixty years, 

 and of the occasions also in which war has seemed imminent 

 but has been averted, will show tliat the Ujotives to war have 

 not often been "aggression for the sake of increasing power, 

 and consccjuently prosperity and fmancial well-being." The 

 impulses, liowever mistaken they are thought by some, or 

 actually may have been, have risen above mere self-interest to 

 feelings and convictions which the argument of "The Great 

 Illusion " docs not so nuich as touch. The entire conception of 

 the work Ls itself an illusion based upon a profound misreading 

 of human action. To regard the world as governed by self- 

 interest only is to live in a non-existent world, an ideal world, 

 a world possessed by an idea nuich less worthy than those 

 which mankind, to do it bare justice, persistently entertains. 

 Yet this is the aspect under which "The Great Illusion" 

 avowedly regards the world that now is. It matters lilllc what 

 tlic arguments arc by which such a theory is advocated, when 

 the concrete facts of history are agaiast it. 



