INTRODUCTION TO NATURALIST'S 

 CALENDAR. 



WILLIAM MARKWICK, who afterwards took the name of Evers- 

 field, was an observant Naturalist, and communicated several 

 papers relating to British zoology to the Linnaean Society, several 

 of which appeared in its Transactions. He died in 1813. 



In preparing an ornithological calendar in 1849 we prefaced it 

 with the following remarks, which may, with propriety, be reprinted 

 here, as although written for ornithology they will generally apply 

 to any department of zoology ; they also allude to the author's 

 favourite subject, migration. 



The importance of the registration of "periodic phenomena? 

 appertaining to animals and plants, has been long acknowledged 

 and advocated in different periodicals and works,' writing of and 

 devoted to natural history ; and sundry calendars have been 

 published, which, although they contain many points worthy of 

 observation, and were sometimes very amply made out, were not 

 within the reach of all observers, and did not serve as a guide for 

 the uniform registration of the phenomena. In our numerous 

 works relating to the Ornithology of the British Islands, we have 

 many observations and partial lists of the appearance and dis- 

 appearance of our winter, summer, and occasional visitants. The 

 migrations ; flocking and congregating of species after incubation ; 

 disappearance of certain species, and their occurrence again after 

 a period of years have been all noted down. Many of our friends 

 have kept private notes of these occurrences, and we have ourselves 

 made observations over a period of nearly thirty years ; but all 

 these are neither kept to any plan, nor accompanied with notes of 

 the temperature, weather, and other circumstances which would 

 have added greatly to their value. They are made in various 



