34 BIRD MIGRATION 



westerly land of France. Unluckily the Fashoda 

 imbroglio was at white heat in that September. No 

 sooner did Mr. Clarke and his companion, Mr. T. G. 

 Laidlaw, set foot upon the island than they became the 

 subject of angry suspicion. What can these rosbifs be 

 after? Birds? Bttise! Who cares about birds except 

 for food ? and these Englishmen disdained to eat such 

 fare. No : they were using their spy-glasses with a far 

 more sinister purpose. They were spies of the British 

 Government. There were no police on the island, but 

 a sergeant gens-d'armes, radiant in blue and silver, was 

 sent down from Paris, and dogged every movement of 

 the strangers, which of course put quiet observation 

 out of the question. Popular suspicion and resentment 

 rose daily, till at last, acting on advice from the British 

 Consul at Brest, our ornithologists beat a retreat, having 

 spent only the inside of a week at their work instead 

 of a full month as they had hoped. I refer to Mr. 

 Eagle Clarke's volumes only to recommend their 

 perusal to anybody interested in the movements of 

 birds, for nowhere else can be found such an exhaustive, 

 trustworthy or recent report on the subject. 



IX 



In a former note I have referred to the exceedingly 

 The Age of n ^8^ ra ^ e of mortality among what are known 

 Birds i n the trade as ' cage-birds,' l and elsewhere 



to the difficulty of obtaining data to determine the 

 average duration of life in any species of wild bird. 2 



1 Memories of the Months, Sixth Series, p. 65. 



* Op. cit., Second Series, p. 281 ; Fifth Series, pp. 50-52. 



