FEBRUARY 5, 1914] 
MIGRATORY MOVEMENTS OF BIRDS IN 
1gt1-12.1 
1 Pia report before us forms vol. xxxii. of the 
Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ 
Club, and is written on much the same lines as 
the former reports noticed in Nature. It affords 
a considerable amount of valuable information for 
those who are interested, and they are many, in 
the fascinating subject of bird-migration. The 
report is gradually growing, and the instalment for 
Igi2 runs to no fewer than 335 pages. It seems 
to the writer that certain matter might well, 
indeed ought, to be omitted. This remark applies 
especially to the inclusion of practically the whole 
of the Scottish data for the autumn of trg11, 
which was published more than a year before by 
the Misses Baxter and Rintoul. 
There are certain species of summer birds— 
and the marsh-warbler is one of them—about 
which we have insufficient data regarding the 
time of their appearance, and we might add 
departure. The species named is believed to be 
the latest of all summer migrants to arrive in 
England, and more information regarding its 
migrations would be most acceptable. Should 
not a special effort be made to obtain this? 
It is also very desirable to know—and this 
remark concerns all similar reports—on whose 
authority some of the’ species recorded are 
based. For example, who identified the rock- 
pipits recorded.as occurring at the Outer Dows- 
ing lightship in the earliest hours of the morning 
of March 20? Were wings sent as vouchers, or 
does the identification rest on the testimony of 
the light-keepers? Would it not be well to pub- 
lish a list of all the wings received, or, perhaps 
better still, to star (*) the species the identifica- 
tion of which has been established by means of 
wings sent ?. 
There are some errata in the report. Among 
them we note that the Scottish records for the 
occurrence of the common tern on the remark- 
ably early dates. of February.1, 4, and 24 are 
credited to the little tern! As last words, let 
us say that those who have not engaged in the 
preparation of similar reports have no idea of 
the vast amount of toil entailed. For this the 
members of the committee deserve our grati- 
tude, in addition to.our appreciation -of the 
results of their labours. Wi Bs, C: 
SER «DAVID. GILL, -ECAB. F-RLS. 
| Dee GILL, whose death occurred in London 
on January 24, was born‘at Aberdeen on 
June 12, 1843. At the age of fourteen he was 
sent to the Dollar Academy, where Dr. Lindsay’s 
teaching imparted to him a fondness for mathe- 
matics, physics, and chemistry. He then pro- 
ceeded to Marischal College and University, Aber- 
deen, where his love of science increased and 
developed under the inspiring influence of Clerk 
Maxwell. He would have liked a scientific career, 
1 Report on the Immigration of Birds in the Spring of rot2 5 als» on 
Migratory Movements in the Autumn of rotr. (London: Witherby, 1013.) 
Price 6s, net. 
NO. 2310, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
635 
but his father, a prosperous Aberdeen merchant, 
wished his son to succeed him. Gill consented 
with reluctance to enter his father’s business, and 
consoled himself by devoting all his spare time 
to physics and chemistry. 
His special interest in astronomy began in the 
year 1863, when it occurred to him that Aberdeen 
was in need of an accurate time standard, like 
the time-gun which Piazzi Smyth had introduced 
in Edinburgh. David Thomson, Professor of 
Natural Philosophy in King’s. College, Aberdeen, 
gave Gill a letter of introduction to Piazzi Smyth, 
whom he visited at Edinburgh, and there made 
| his first acquaintance with an astronomical obser- 
vatory. On his return to Aberdeen, with Thom- 
son’s assistance, an old disused observatory of 
King’s College was. refitted. Every clear even- 
ing Gill and Thomson went to the observatory 
and worked with the transit instrument. The 
observatory possessed a good sidereal clock, and 
a mean-time clock was obtained, to which contact 
springs were affixed, so that other clocks, in- 
cluding the turret clock of the college, were con- 
trolled by electric currents sent each second from 
the standard. 
When the time-service had become a matter of 
routine, Gill purchased a silver-on-glass speculum 
of 12 in. aperture and 1o ft. focus. He him- 
self designed an equatorial mounting, and the 
heavy parts were made to his working drawings 
in the workshops of a firm of shipbuilders in 
Aberdeen. The driving circle, its tangent screw, 
and slow motion were made by Messrs. Cooke 
and Sons, but the driving clock with a conical 
pendulum was made by Gill’s own hands. With 
this instrument he made observations of double 
stars, &c., and took photographs of the moon. A 
copy of one of these photographs was recently 
presented by him to the Royal Astronomical 
Society, and is of great excellence. 
About this time Lord Lindsay (afterwards the 
Earl of Crawford) was considering the erection 
of an observatory at Dun Echt. He called upon 
Gill to examine the instruments and methods he 
had used in obtaining his lunar photographs. 
The acquaintanceship soon ripened, and he learned 
of Gill’s wish to devote his time entirely to 
science. It thus happened that in 1872 the Earl 
of Crawford offered to Gill the post of director 
of the observatory which his son was about to 
erect. Gill had married in 1870, and the accept- 
ance of Lord Crawford’s offer involved a con- 
siderable pecuniary sacrifice; but neither he nor _ 
his wife had any hesitation in gratefully accepting 
a post which was in such entire accordance with 
his tastes and interests. 
The years. 1872-74 were accordingly busily 
employed in cooperation with Lord Lindsay in the 
design and erection of the new observatory. Two 
of the instruments, the transit circle and 15-in. 
equatorial, were twenty years later presented to 
| the Government, and formed the nucleus of the 
) new Royal Observatory at Edinburgh. 
A third 
instrument was the 4-in. heliometer, which was 
afterwards used to such good purpose at 
