460 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 
Report on the Migration of Birds in the Spring and Autumn of 
1885. By a Committee appointed by the British Associa- 
tion. 8vo, pp. 178. Edinburgh: M‘Farlane & Erskine. 
1886. 
Tue Seventh General Report of this Committee, consisting of 
Mr. Cordeaux (Secretary), Prof. Newton, Messrs. Harvie-Brown, 
Eagle Clarke, Barrington, and More, is comprised in a pamphlet 
of 173 pages, and includes observations taken at lighthouses and 
lightvessels, as well as at several land stations, on the coasts of 
Great Britain and Ireland and the outlying islands. 
The fact that several keepers of lighthouses and lightvessels 
have forwarded legs and wings of such specimens as have been 
killed against the lanterns, and were unknown to them, has led 
to the determination of several rare birds which otherwise would 
have escaped notice. It is evident that unless the birds can 
be correctly named, the value of this inquiry is materially 
diminished, and it is intended, in order to facilitate the sending 
of wings, to supply the light-keepers with large linen envelopes, 
ready stamped and addressed. 
The Committee acknowledge important assistance from Mr. 
H. Giitke in forwarding a daily record of the migration of birds 
as observed at Heligoland between January 1st and December 
31st, with the concurrent meteorological conditions under which 
the various phenomena occurred. 
Altogether 187 stations were supplied with printed schedules 
for registering the observations, and returns have been sent in 
from 125. The general results are satisfactory, and additional 
information of interest has been accumulated respecting the 
breeding habits of seafowl on the outlying islands and skerries 
on the Scotch and Irish coasts. 
A special point of interest in this Report is the large arrival, 
with a north-east wind, of Pied Flycatchers in the first week in 
May, 1885, observed at Spurn Point, Flamborough Head, the 
Isle of May, and Pentland Skerries. At Flamborough Head 
the Flycatchers were accompanied by male Redstarts in large 
numbers, both species swarming for two or three days. The 
immigration at this period was not exclusively confined to these- 
