58 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
BIOLOGICAL STATIONS FOR THE OBSERVATION OF 
, MIGRATORY BIRDS. 
Tne nature of the services rendered by the Committee ap- 
pointed by the British Association to collect observations on 
the Migration of Birds is now fully recognised and appreciated, 
thanks to the excellent Reports which the Committce have 
annually published since the subject was fairly taken in hand 
some five years since; but our readers may not be so well aware 
of the steps which have been taken in the same direction by 
naturalists on the Continent. We therefore append a translation 
of a German circular on this subject which has lately reached us, 
and which is interesting not only because it shows what our 
German friends are doing in the matter, but also because it 
contains suggestions which deserve the consideration of observers 
in this country. It is issued by Dr. Rudolf Blasius, of Brunswick, 
and runs as follows :— 
An APPEAL TO THE ORNITHOLOGISTS OF GERMANY. 
At a Meeting of the General Ornithological Society of 
Germany, held at Brunswick nine years ago, on the proposition 
of Dr. A. Reichenow (warmly seconded by the late Dr. A. Brehm), 
it was resolved that a Committee should be formed for organising 
stations for the observation of birds in Germany. Seven Annual 
Reports have since appeared, bearing witness to the unceasing 
activity of the Committee and its correspondents. A great 
number of observations have been collected together; but there 
still remain many gaps in our knowledge of German bird-life 
which should be filled up. The example set by Germany has 
been followed by many other countries; in England, America, 
Austrian-Hungary, and Denmark, ornithological committees 
have been formed, which publish similar Annual Reports from 
information supplied from a series of stations for ornithological 
observations. At the first International Ornithological Congress, 
held at Vienna in April, 1884 [see Zool. 1884, pp. 189, 188, 346], a 
resolution was passed for the formation of a permanent Inter- 
national Ornithological Committee, which should superintend 
arrangements for similar stations in every inhabited country of the 
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