1784 The Zoologist — August, J 809. 



Three mandarin ducks [Aix galericulala). 

 Five Bahama ducks [Pcecilonelta bahamensis). 

 A yellow-billed duck {Anas xanthoryncha). 

 Two glaucous gulls [Lanes glaucus). 



The Death of Species. By Edward Newman. 

 (Conliuued from Zool. S. S. 1542.) 



Migration. 

 In this age of unfixity and unrest, when nothing seems settled 

 unless it be the desire to unsettle ; when faith in the old is shaken to 

 its foundation ; when yearning for the new distracts our attention from 

 the true ; when we are required to renounce the most authentic 

 records of facts, to abandon the most cherished conviction of years, 

 and to accept crude hypotheses, which are neither clear to the minds 

 of the propounders nor intelligible to the minds of the learners ; when 

 Science itself, following in the wake of so-called Theology, exhibits 

 every symptom of confirmed insanity ; it is refreshing to find a large 

 class of facts still carrying their irresistible logic through all oppo- 

 sition. 1 mean the patent facts of migration. We all believe in them ; 

 we all admit their existence, although very few of us have any very 

 precise idea of their cause, their effect, tlieir variation, or their extent. 

 It may be convenient to state in limine that there are two great 

 phases of migration — the first, that of the swallow, which has an 

 ascertained periodicity, and is double, having its ebb and flow as 



certain as the tide ; 



" Euns redienpque gaudel." 



The second, which is single, is an EXODUS that meditates no 

 return, and is exemplified by the locust, the sugar ant, the 

 lemming, the Israelite and the Teuton. There is no reasonable doubt 

 that both these phenomena tend to prolong the existence of a 

 species, postponing indefinitely its ultimate death, but, paradoxical as 

 it may appear, resulting in death to millions of individuals. The two 

 phases are so mixed and involved that no classification of them could 

 be otherwise than hypothetical, and will therefore not be attempted by 

 me. I shall dwell for a while on that particular phase which serves 

 especially to illustrate my views, and which I have denominated 

 an " exodus." 



