Sept. 16, 1886] 
the Longstone Lighthouse, on the Farn Islands, a little earlier 
—at 10.30 p.m., when the wind became strong from S.W. 
From each succeeding year’s statistics we have come to almost 
similar conclusions regarding the lines of flight—regular and 
periodically used routes where the migratory hosts are focused 
into solid streams. Three salient lines on the east coast of 
Scotland are invariably shown, viz. (1) by the entrance of the 
Firth of Forth, and as far north as Bell Rock, both coming in 
autumn and leaving in spring; (2) by the Pentland Firth and 
Pentland Skerries, likewise in spring and autumn ; and (3) by 
the insular groups of Orkney and Shetland, which perhaps may 
be looked upon as part of No. 2. On the other hand, three 
great areas of coast-line, including many favourably lighted 
stations, almost invariably, save in occasionally protracted 
easterly winds, and even then but rarely, send in no returns, or 
schedules of the very scantiest description. ‘Ihese areas are 
Berwickshire, the whole of the east coast south of the Moray 
Firth, and Caithness and East Sutherland. Each and all of 
these areas possess high and precipitous coast-lines, if we except 
the minor estuaries of the Rivers Tay and Dee, and asmall por- 
tion of the lower coast-line of Sutherland, which face towards 
the east. On the east coast of England these highways are less 
clearly demonstrated. The Farn Islands, Flamborough Head, 
and the Spurn are well established points of arrival and de- 
parture ; but south of the Humber as far as the South Foreland 
the stream appears continuous along the whole coast-line, and to 
no single locality can any certain and definite route be assigned. 
It cannot be said that the southerly flow of autumn migrants is 
equally distributed along the entire west coast of England. On 
the contrary, the schedules afford unmistakable evidence that 
the great majority of these migrants, so far as the English and 
Welsh coasts are concerned, are observed at stations south of 
Anglesey. But while the north-west section of the coast is thus 
less favoured than the rest, such is not the case with the Isle of 
Man, which comes in for an important share of the west coast 
migratory movement. The fact has already been alluded to 
that large masses of immigrants from Southern Europe pass 
through the Pentland Firth, and, along with migrants from 
Faroe, Iceland, and Greenland, pass down the west coast of 
Scotland, whence many cross to Ireland, and it seems most 
probable that the remainder leave Scotland at some point on 
the Wigtown coast, and pass by way of the Isle of Man to the 
west coast of Wales, and thus avoid the English shore of the 
Trish Sea. The schedules sent in from the coasts of Flint, 
Cheshire, Lancashire, and Cumberland show that in 1884-85 
comparatively few migrants were observed, and that the great 
general movement did not affect them in any general degree. 
These remarks do not apply to migrants amongst the waders and 
ducks and geese, which, as a rule, closely follow coast-lines, 
and which are abundantly represented on the Solway and coasts 
of Cumberland and Lancashire. There is a much-used bird 
route along the north coast of the British Channel, and thence, 
from the Pembroke coast, across to Wexford, passing the 
Tuskar Rock, the best Irish station. The fact of a double 
migration or passage of birds, identical in species, ac.oss the 
North Sea in the spring and autumn both towards the E. and 
S.E., and to the W. and N.W., is again very clearly shown in 
the present report. This phenomenon of a cross migration to 
and from the Continent, proceeding at one and the same time, 
is regularly recorded on the whole of the east coast of England, 
but is specially observable at those light-vessels which are 
stationed in the south-east district ; at the same time, it is in- 
variably persistent, and regular year by year. Our most inter- 
esting stations are those on small islands or rocks, or light- 
vessels at a considerable distance from shore, and the regular 
occurrence of so many land birds, apparently of weak power of 
flight, around these lanterns, is a matter of surprise to those 
unacquainted with the facts of migration. No clear indication 
of the migration of the redbreast has yet been shown on the 
Trish coast ; the records of its occurrences are few and scattered. 
The black redstart was recorded at several stations in the 
southern half of Ireland ; specimens were forwarded from Mine 
Head, the Skelligs, and Rockabill. It is apparently a regular 
winter visitant to the Skelligs and Tearaght, generally appear- 
ing in October and November. The occurrences so far 
recorded by the Committee of the black redstart on the east 
coast of Great Britain, in the autumn, range between October 
3 and November 3. In the spring of the present year, Mr. G. 
Hunt, under date of March 20, reports an extraordinary flight 
of rooks at Somerton, on the Norfolk coast, which he observed 
NATURE 
483 
from 10.30a.m. to 6 p.m. He says :—‘‘I observed them flying 
just above the sand-hills, going due south, and as far as the 
eye could see both before and behind there was nothing but 
rooks. There could never for one moment in the day be less 
than a thousand in sight at one time; they kept in a thin 
wavering line. The coast line here runs due north and south.” 
Mr. J. H. Gurney reports :—‘‘I saw the rooks and grey crows 
on the same day in much smaller numbers as were seen at 
Somerton, which is fifteen miles further south. I again saw 
them on the 21st, 22nd, 25th, 26th, and 29th, but none after 
this date; with us, however, grey crows preponderated ; the 
direction was to S.E. An enormous migration of these and 
many others is recorded from Heligoland, also from Hanover 
between March 19 and 25.” In conclusion your Committee 
wish to thank H.R.H. the Master and the Elder Brethren of 
the Trinity House, the Commissioners of Northern Lights, and 
the Commissioners of Irish Lights for their ready co-operation 
and assistance, through their intelligent officers and men, in this 
inquiry. The Committee respectfully request their re-appoint- 
ment. 
Report of the Committee, consisting of Prof. Cleland, Prof. 
McKendrick, Prof. Ewart, Prof. Stirling, Prof. Bower, Dr. 
Cleghorn, and Prof. McIntosh (Secreta'y), for the Purpose of 
continuing the Researches on Hood-Fishes and Invertebrates at 
the St. Andrews Marine Laboratory.—lthe Committee beg to 
report that the sum of 75/., placed at their disposal, has for the 
most part been expended in the purchase of instruments and 
books permanently useful in the Laboratory, only a limited pro- 
portion having been disbursed for skilled assistance. Since the 
meeting of the Association at Aberdeen last year several struc- 
tural improvements in the wooden hospital, now converted into 
the Laboratory, have been completed, and others are being 
carried out by the Fishery Board for Scotland. These changes 
will render the temporary building much more suitable for work. 
A small yawl of about 21 feet in length has also been added to 
the apparatus by the Fishery Board. The desiderata now are 
an increase in the number of good microscopes and other ex- 
pensive instruments, and an addition to the nucleus of books 
which workers require always at hand. In this respect the 
Laboratory has been much indebted to the Earl of Dalhousie, 
who forwarded a complete set of Fishery Blue-Books, and to 
the Trustees of the British Museum, who sent such of their 
publications as bore on marine zoology. Collections of papers 
have also been forwarded by many observers, amongst whom 
Prof. Flower, the late Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys, and Prof. Alexander 
Agassiz are conspicuous. Most of the Continental and American 
workers in marine zoology and cognate subjects, as well as those 
of our own country, are indeed represented. The first work of 
the year was the examination of a fine male tunny, 9 feet in 
length, caught in a beam-trawl net near the mouth of the Forth, 
and the skeleton of which is now being prepared for the Uni- 
versity Museum. Various interesting anatomical features came 
under notice, and its perfect condition enabled a more correct 
figure of its external appearance to be made (wide dun. Nat. 
Hist,, April and May 1886, and ‘‘ Fourth Report of the Fishery 
Board for Scotland,” plate 8). The examination of various food- 
and other fishes in their adult and young conditions was sys- 
tematically carried out, and notes on the following species will 
be found in the Annals of Natural History, and the ‘‘ Report of 
the Fishery Board” :—Weever (greater and lesser), shanny, 
sand-eel, halibut, salmon, common trout, herring, sprat, conger, 
ballan-wrasse, shagreen-ray, piked dog-fish, and porbeagle- 
shark. Special attention was also given to the ‘‘ Mode of Cap- 
ture of Food-Fishes by Liners,” ‘‘ Injuries to Baited Hooks and 
to Fishes on the Lines,” ‘‘ Shrimp-Trawling in the Thames,” 
‘«Sprat-Fishing,”’ and to the ‘‘ Eggs and Young of Food- and 
other Fishes,” ‘‘ Diseases of Fishes,” the ‘‘ Effect of Storms on 
‘the Marine Fauna,” and ‘‘ Remarks on Invertebrates, including 
Forms used as Bait” (vide ‘* Fourth Report of the Fishery Board 
for Scotland,” 1886). The active work in connection with the 
development of fishes for the season may be dated from the 
middle of January, when one of the local trawlers captured a 
large mass of the ova of one of the food-fishes, viz. the 
catfish. The embryos in these eggs (which are the size 
of the salmon’s) were well advanced, so that, with the 
exception of a few unimpregnated ova observed during the 
trawling experiments of 1884, the earlier stages have yet to be 
examined. The large size of the embryos of the catfish per- 
mitted a satisfactory comparison to be instituted between them 
