OCTOBER 233 



of stormy ocean to such desolate fragments of terra 

 firma, is one of the mysteries of animal intelligence. 



In Sule Skerry, which lies well in the track of 

 migration to and from Iceland and Scandinavia, 

 being only thirty-five miles north-west of Hoy Head 

 in Orkney, Mr. Eagle Clarke could only obtain records 

 of robins appearing in autumn on their southward 

 flight. Let me commend to all who take an interest 

 in the subject Mr. Clarke's Studies in Bird Migration 

 (1912) as an admirable counterpart to Herr Gatke's 

 well-known Heligoland (1895) ; for Mr. Clarke has had 

 the advantage of serious scientific training, which 

 Herr Gatke had not. Heligoland, unhappily, is a 

 regular charnel-house for birds, the inhabitants regard- 

 ing the seasonal arrival of the nights as designed by 

 Providence for the replenishment of their larders and 

 pockets ; whereas Mr. Clarke sets an example which it 

 is to be wished could be enforced upon ornithologists. 

 He is content to register having seen a bird without 

 thinking it necessary to put it to death in order to 

 confirm his observation. 



Very different appears to be the practice of Professor 

 C. J. Patten, who communicated a sanguinary paper to 

 the Zoologist (January 1913) describing the migration 

 of robins as observed at the Tuskar Lighthouse off the 

 coast of Wexford. He seems to be afraid that nobody 

 will take his word as having identified even so familiar 

 a bird as the robin unless he can produce its corpse, 

 or, as he euphemistically phrases it, unless he has ' col- 

 lected it.' Referring to four occurrences of the robin 

 at the Tuskar Light, as reported by Mr. Barrington, 



