86 BRITISH BIRDS. 



eggs being taken and one of the old birds shot, after which 

 the survivor deserted the site. 



W. J. Clarke. 



MIGRATION ROUTES OF WHITE STORKS. 



In a leaflet which has just been issued from the Vogelwarte 

 at Rossitten, Dr. Thienemann gives particulars of two marked 

 Storks recaptured in Africa within the last few months, and 

 summarises all his returns from that continent, of Storks 

 marked as nestlings in East Prussia and neighbouring 

 provinces. The six African localities of recapture, and the 

 locality of a Syrian recapture recorded at the same time, are, 

 from north to south, as follows : — Karietein, 65 miles north- 

 east of Damascus ; Lake Fittri (eastwards from Lake Chad) ; 

 Roseires, on the Blue Nile, Soudan ; Fort Jameson, North- 

 eastern Rhodesia ; Kalahari Desert ; Morija, Basutoland ; 

 and Quthing, Basutoland. The available information as to 

 dates of recapture is in most cases of the vaguest. It will 

 be seen that the localities are fairly well distributed along 

 the route, or routes, which they begin to mark out. The 

 record from Lake Fittri, almost in the same latitude as 

 Roseires, but 1150 miles further west, is suggestive. No 

 mention of European returns is made, but it is interesting to 

 note that Herr Mortensen's Storks marked at Viborg and in 

 Brandenburg, follow a south-easterly course through Germany 

 and Hungary towards Asia Minor, in contrast to his marked 

 birds of other species, which take the more usual south- 

 westerly direction. 



A. Landsborough Thomson. 



RED GROUSE, HEATHER, AND CROWBERRY. 



It is impossible to read any account of the natural history 

 of the Red Grouse without coming across the statement, 

 either explicit or implied, that the bird cannot exist without 

 heather — a term that may be used to include the true heather 

 or ling (Calluna vulgaris), and the two common heaths (Erica 

 Tetralix and E. cinerea). So high an authority as the late 

 Professor A. Newton stated that " the Red Grouse indeed is 

 rarely or never found away from the heather on which it 

 subsists, and with which it is in most men's minds associated." 

 So far as I have been able to learn, this is the opinion held 

 by every British ornithological writer who has treated of the 

 bird, and by all sportsmen and gamekeepers. But the Red 

 Grouse is abundant on certain moors in Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire where the heather is absolutely unknown. 



