ol. XIV. 



1914 



1 From Magazines, <S-c. IO3 



mental change, or to removal of a barrier (objective or subjective) 

 hitherto preventing access to the new areas ; but the immediate 

 point is less the origin, than the method and progress, of range- 

 extension. In spreading, a species seeks preferably its natural 

 habitat — that is to say, the colonization of new areas ecologically 

 coincident with those of origin tends to precede the colonization 

 of new environments ; and the rate of increase and spread will 

 depend less directly upon fecundity than upon the extension of 

 the necessary environmental conditions. In this country the 

 Tufted Duck has shown a tendency to increase more rapidly, and 

 to spread more widely, than the Pochard ; but the discrepancy 

 between the species is probably more nearly related to an unequal 

 supply of their respective ecological requirements than to unequal 

 fecundity. Environment guides and controls, even where it does 

 not originate, increase." 



Birds at Lighthouses. — An interesting article, entitled " Round 

 the Lighthouse Lantern," is published in the summer, 1914, 

 number of Bird Notes and News, the journal issued quarterly by 

 the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Following are 

 extracts : — 



" Perhaps none of the many branches of the work undertaken 

 by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds— not even the 

 salvation of the solitary Raven and fairy-hke Roseate Tern from 

 the collector, or the attempt to save the aerial Linnet from the 

 bird-catcher, or the awakening of sympathy and love for nature 

 in school children— appeals to the general public so directly as 

 does the preservation of migratory birds at the lighthouse. . . . 

 Rather more than a year ago the Society started, at the annual 

 meeting in 1913, a special fund for the protection of migrating 

 birds. The history of the movement has been told in a previous 

 number of Bird Notes and News (March, 1913). A tremendous 

 loss of bird-life results from the fatal attraction of the lighthouse 

 lantern ; it had long been deplored, but was supposed irremediable. 

 The birds, it was said, flew at the dazzhng light like moths at a 

 candle, and, dashing against the lantern, were killed or stunned, 

 and fell into the sea or into the lighthouse gallery. A Dutch 

 naturahst (Mr. Thijsse), however, held that only a small pro- 

 portion were lost in this way, and that the majority merely flew, 

 dazed and weary, round and round the incomprehensible gleam 

 until they dropped down exhausted. During three years he 

 tested plans for providing resting-places for the small travellers 

 round about the bewildering rays, and at the end of that time he 

 was able to report that the loss of bird-life at the great Terschelhng 

 Light had been reduced from thousands in a night to something 

 like a hundred in the whole migration season. The Royal Society 

 for the Protection of Birds entered into correspondence with Mr. 

 Thijsse, obtained from him all particulars of his invention, and 



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