NATURE 



25 



THURSDAY, MAY 13, 18S0 



MIGRATORY BIRDS AT LIGHTHOUSES 



CONSIDERING the amount of nonsense that has 

 been written and still continues to be written — in 

 season and out of season — on the subject of the migration 

 of birds, it is very refreshing to find two gentlemen in 

 this country- seriously setting to work to accumulate facts, 

 which may in time be reasonably expected to enable 

 ornithologists to arrive at an opinion, more decided than 

 anybody can be said to possess at the present moment, with 

 regard to that wonderful movement. It might be thought, 

 perhaps, that we indeed had already enough and to spare 

 of recorded observations, for lists of the arrival of 

 migratory birds abound in most of our natural-history 

 periodicals, to say nothing of provincial newspapers ; but 

 it docs not require much study and comparison of those 

 lists to perceive that, with some honourable exceptions, they 

 are obviously the work of persons not at all fitted — 

 whether by character, training, or opportunities it matters 

 not — to be competent observers, and consequently the 

 records of their observations have done uncommonly 

 little to advance our knowledge of the subject. Every one 

 who has tried anything of the sort must admit, if he 

 speaks the truth, that the difficulties in the way of 

 observing the movements of birds are much greater than 

 at first sight w^ould appear to be the case. To carry on 

 this kind of systematic observation to any good purpose, 

 a man, if he cannot make it his first object, must yet have 

 such occupations as will not interfere with his being in 

 the right place at the right moment, and of course the 

 ordinary engagements of life are very apt to act as 

 disturbing forces and to bafifle his best intentions. 

 Farmers, in the pursuit of their vocation, are perhaps of 

 all professional men the most suited for the work ; but the 

 farmer may have to attend a couple of distant market-towns 

 for as many days in the week, and unless his road thither 

 and thence lies favourably, these will be dies non so far as 

 his opportunities of observation are concerned. A very few 

 years' experience will convince any sensible person that 

 the first wheatear of the season is almost always to be 

 seen on a certain down or heath, and the earliest swallow 

 over a certain pool or reach of a river. Localities like 

 these, once discovered, have to be watched daily by him 

 who wishes to record faithfully the arrival in his district 

 of those particular species, and the same is to be said of 

 others. Even the most enthusiastic sportsman may be 

 hindered by a score of circumstances over which he has 

 no control from visiting for a week or more the particular 

 spot in a copse or corner of a bog where, if there be a 

 woodcock or a snipe in the country, he knows it is sure to 

 be found. Seeing then that of the various kinds of out- 

 door observations few are more subject to the accidents 

 which affect human ^actions and habits than those 

 which relate to the movements of birds, the extremely 

 unsatisfactory nature of records made in what is at best a 

 casual way may be accounted for, and hitherto we have 

 had scarcely any records of any other sort. 



Some time ago it occurred to Mr. Cordeaux, author of 

 that excellent little book "The Birds of the Humber 

 District," noticed in these columns some seven or eight 

 Vol. xxii.— No. 550 



years since (NATURE, vol. viii. p. 100), and to Mr- 

 Harvie Brown, a gentleman not less well known by his 

 ornithological writings, that a great increase in our know- 

 ledge of the subject would accrue if they could but get 

 the keepers of the numerous lighthouses and lightships 

 along our coast to assist in the work, and accordingly 

 they set about enlisting these men in the service.' We 

 know not whether these gentlemen had fully appreciated 

 the unsatisfactory nature of existing records, upon which 

 we have just been dwelling, nor does it signify in the 

 least. It was evident to them, and might have been to 

 others, that men who were always on duty and always on 

 the look-out would be able, if so minded and properly 

 instructed, to give valuable aid, and that their observa- 

 tions would necessarily be of a kind that it was impossible 

 for any other class of people to make, for they would be 

 carried on at hours when nearly all the rest of the world 

 was indoors, if not asleep, and at places at once the 

 most favourable and the most inaccessible to any one 

 else. 



By what steps Messrs. Cordeaux and Brown proceeded,, 

 and how they overcame the scruples (if any were enter- 

 tained) of the authorities of the Trinity House Board in 

 England and of the Commissioners of Northern Lights 

 in Scotland, we are not told ; but these gentlemen have 

 to be congratulated on the result they have attained, 

 which appears in the form of a most instructive and 

 interesting " Report" — the first, we hope, of along series 

 — "on the Migration of Birds in the Autumn of 1S79," 

 printed in the Zoologist for the current month, to which 

 we beg leave to call our readers' best attention. It 

 appears that forms of inquiry and letters of instraction 

 were sent to various lighthouses and lightships. To 

 begin with the east coast of Great Britain, it is said that 

 such papers were forwarded to twetity-six Scottish light- 

 houses, from thirteen, or just one-half, of which returns 

 have been received, the remaining thirteen having either 

 sent back the forms blank, owing to the unusual scarcity of 

 birds last autumn, or having taken no notice of the request 

 to fill them up. The same course was pursued with 

 respect to ihiriy-seveu English stations, from tiventy-fivc 

 of which returns have been received. On the west coast 

 appeal was made to thirty-four Scottish stations, t-wciity- 

 foiir of which replied, and to three on the Isle of Man 

 (the Manxmen were silent), but to 'none in England or 

 Wales. So much willing co-operation, we confess, we 

 could hardly have anticipated, especially on a first experi- 

 ment, and it certainly appears from the intelligent remarks 

 (of which specimens are occasionally given by the re- 

 porters), in addition to the mere filling up of the sheets sup- 

 plied to them, that the men must have taken considerable 

 interest in the inquiry, as w-ell as have taken no common 

 pains in giving the information sought. 



To form any conclusions on insufficient premisses is a 

 rank offence in science, and it would be absurd to sup- 

 pose that this single report throws any light on the 

 mysteries of migration. But we are greatly mistaken if 



* We give all credit to these gentlemen for the origiaality of action, but 

 the conception of some such scheme had been ta1<en up before. Among the 

 numerous inquiries in which Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., had engaged himself, 

 he had already made some endeavoursin this direction, and we are in a position 

 to say that even prior to his time, though nothing came of it, the idea had 

 been broached informally among some zoological members of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. Of this fact we, however, 

 believe that Messrs, Brown and Cordeaux were not conscious, as indeed 

 it could hardly happen that they should be. 



