470 



NA TURE 



[September 6, 1906 



required the greatest skill and patience to save lliem 

 unbroken, and in some cases to save an unusually 

 line piece it was necessary to sacrifice inferior ones 

 .urrounding' it." A short time ago I visited 

 ^'asiliki myself under the guidance of Mr. Seager, 

 and can testify to the great interest of his work 

 there. The plaster-filled houses are remarkable. 

 May it not be possible that this hard stuff, which 

 makes the excavation of the houses at Vasiliki 

 so difficult, can be explained in a manner different 

 from that adopted by Mr. Seager? At Phaistos tlie 

 older palace {Middle Minoan or Kamdres period) was 

 partly razed, and the remains filled up and covered 

 with a layer of hard beton or cement, as hard as that 

 of \'asiliki, on which the Late Minoan palace was 

 built. I would suggest that the plaster of Vasiliki 

 may be in reality a cement fiUing-up, on which later 

 houses were built. There are certainly two or three 

 distinct superimposed " towns " at Vasiliki. Mr. 

 Seager is now proceeding with the work at Vasiliki 

 alone, as Mrs. Hawes (Miss Boyd) has not visited 

 Crete this vear. 



Thus Miss Boyd's Mycena;an Pompeii still continues 

 to be interesting, and we hope that she will be enabled 

 to go on with her work in Crete. Miss Boyd's is the 

 most important archaeological work connected with 

 the University of Pennsylvania, and we hope that the 

 authorities of that institution adequatelv recognise 

 this fact. H. 'R. H.all. 



THE IMMIGRATION OF SUMMER BIRDS.' 



T^ HOUGH great advance in our knowledge has 

 -'■ been made during recent years concerning the 

 migration of birds as observed in our islands, yet 

 much remains to be learned, and any inquiry that 

 will add to what is already known must be hailed 

 with satisfaction. In what direction and by what 

 methods such advancement is to be sought are ques- 

 tions requiring not only careful consideration, but 

 a full knowledge of what has alreadv been accom- 

 plished. 



In electing to investigate the immigration of 

 summer birds, the committee appointed by the British 

 Ornithologists' Club has selected the best known of 

 -all the phases in the phenomenon. It is true that a 

 special feature has been added in the endeavour to 

 "trace the movements of the migrants through the 

 country after their arrival on our shores, but it is 

 much to be doubted whether the results will contribute 

 •anything of material importance or at all commen- 

 surate with the labour involved. On the other hand, 

 our knowledge of the autumnal departure movements, 

 both from their inland nesting haunts and from our 

 shores, of these same birds is far from complete. 



The new committee labours under a misapprehension 

 in supposing that the south coast was entirely 

 omitted from the scope of the British Association 

 committee's inquiry, for part of both the eastern and 

 western sections were scheduled annuallv. Moreover, 

 the migratory movements on the whole of that coast, 

 for both spring and autumn, were afterwards fully 

 investigated for three years, and the results incor- 

 porated in the later reports submitted to the Associ- 

 ation. 



Then as to methods. It may be well, perhaps, 

 to remind the new committee of the opinions, 

 based on long experience, expressed bv Prof. 

 Newton and his colleagues in their final report to 

 the Southport meeting of the British Association 

 in 1903. They say, " the last thing your com- 



1 " Report on the Immigrations of Summer Residents in the Sprinc of 

 1905." By the Committee appointed by the Briti.«h Ornithologists' Club. 

 < London : Witherby and Co., 1906 ) 



NO. 1923, VOL. 74] 



mittee would wish is to discourage the prosecu- 

 tion of observations, but they feel bound to express 

 the opinion that no great advance of our present 

 knowledge of the subject seems likely to be made 

 until new methods are applied. What they should 

 be it is impossible to suggest, but those used at 

 present appear to have reached their limit." In this 

 mature opinion the present writer fully concurs. 



The report under notice is not lacking in interest, 

 but it does not add anything material to our know- 

 ledge; indeed, several years' observations will be 

 necessary before conclusions of permanent value, 

 though possibly not advancing what is already 

 known, can be expected. By premature publication 

 much harm may be done, and it is to be feared that 

 writers will arise and tell us, on the strength of this 

 report, that, among other things, whinchats, red- 

 starts, whitethroats, reed warblers, cuckoos, and other 

 species do not arrive on the western section of the 

 south coast, when further investigations by the com- 

 mittee will prove that they do. It is certainly sur- 

 prising to find the new committee instituting a com- 

 parison between the weather conditions prevailing in 

 the English Channel and the arrival of birds on its 

 shores (of course with abortive results), for it was 

 hoped that it had been clearly proved by exhaustive 

 investigations that the meteorological conditions in- 

 fluencing such movements must be sought in the area 

 whence the migrants took their departure. 



In conclusion, one is tempted to suggest that it 

 would be well if the members of the committee of the 

 British Ornithologists' Club, before proceeding further 

 with their arduous labours, took stock of the situation, 

 and asked themselves if their energies might not be 

 advantageouslv directed to more useful and productive 

 blanches of the subject they have at heart. 



NOTES. 

 Prof. I. P. P.ivloff, profe.ssor of physiology in the L iii- 

 versity of St. Petersburg, will deliver the Hu.xley lecture 

 at the Charing Cross Hospital Medical School on Monday, 

 October i. 



Prof. Emil Fischer, professor of chemistry in the 

 University of Berlin, has been elected a foreign member of 

 the Royal Society of New South Wales. 



An Irish International Exhibition will be opened in 

 Dublin in Mav next. It will be the first exhibition of its 

 kind to be held in Ireland for nearly forty years. 



Thf. Italian Electrotechnical Association will meet in 

 Milan on September 30, when visits will be paid to various 

 factories in the neighbourhood and the hydro-electrical in- 

 stallations which have been recently constructed. 



The Right Hon. Sir John Eldon Gorst has been appointed 

 special commissioner to represent His Majesty's Govern- 

 ment at the New Zealand International Exhibition, the 

 opening of which is to take place on November i next. 



We regret to have to record the death of Prof. W. B. 

 Dwight, who occupied the chair of natural history in 

 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.V. Prof. Dwight was an 

 original member of the Geological Society of America, and 

 interested himself for many years in the Palaeozoic rocks 

 of Wappinger ^"alley and others in the neighbourhood of 

 Poughkeepsie. 



The programme of the prize subjects of the Industrial 

 Society of Mulhouse for the competition closing in 1907 has 

 just been issued. Little change has been made in the pro- 



