110 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



some accounts of the destruction of birds at lighthouses, and 

 I myself endeavoured to collect land- data connected with the 

 effects of the severe winter of 1878-79 upon animal life 

 {Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc, Glasgow, 1879, p. 123 et seq.), and 

 thereafter I published annual reports on Scottish Ornithology 

 (op. cit., 1880, pp. 291 et seq., and 1881, pp. 41 et seq.) up to 

 date of April 1881. After this date I found myself too busy 

 with other matters to continue these land reports, as the 

 correspondence entailed was very heavy, and I reluctantly 

 gave up what I felt I could not continue with justice to the 

 subject. 



In Germany similar reports have been conducted by Dr 

 Blasius for several years, the title of the last report being 

 " VII. Jahresbericht (1882) des Auschusses flir Beobach- 

 tungsstationen der Vogel Deutschlands (Separatabdruck aus 

 Cabanis Journ. fur Ornithologie. Januar — Heft 1884)." 



I may also mention in this place that application has been 

 made to the British Association Migration Committee for 

 copies of their schedules and letters of instruction from 

 China and Japan and from New Zealand, and that returns 

 come to that committee also from Iceland, Faroe, Heligoland, 

 and the Danish coast, as well as several from ocean-going 

 steamers. 



The Congress at Vienna will no doubt arrive at further 

 conclusions, and ere long there will be a network of ornitho- 

 logical observatories all over Europe. 



If so, the subject of uniformity of record must come to the 

 front and be discussed also. I may say I have stated my views 

 pretty fully to Herr Dr Gustav von Hayek, Secretary to the In- 

 ternational Ornithological Congress at Vienna, on these points, 

 both as regards uniformity of method in working out distri- 

 bution of species and for the purposes of recording migrational 

 phenomena, and I will not trouble you with all the details 

 here. But regarding records of rare occurrences I would like 

 to say just a few words, and to suggest that some such form 

 as I give an outline of here should be adopted by this Society, 

 as well as all others, to insure greater uniformity of record. 

 I have elsewhere spoken more fully about the working out 

 of this method [v. " Zoologist," Feb. 1884, p. 60, March, p. 



