Fei}. 24, 1 881] 



NATURE 



387 



It is significant that tliis game cannot be played by the blind 

 boys in windy weather. And yet the alluwance for windage on 

 a heavy bow 1 can be no very large quantity. 



The boys also play football with great zeal and considerable 

 skill. Bells are rung at the goals throughout the game, and the 

 ball contains two little bells. With these guides the boys 

 manage both to follow the ball and to direct it to the goal';. 



Clifton College, February 15 H. B. Jupp 



Migration of the Wagtail 



The inclosed extract from the New ^'ork Evening Post, a 

 newspaper of high standing for accuracy and intelligence, con- 

 tains statements which are not, I think, generally known in 

 regard to the migration of the water-wagtail, and your insertion 

 of the fame may be the means of drawing from other corre- 

 spondents some evidence in confirmation or disproof. Though 

 riding is not quite unknown among animals other than men, yet 

 >uch purposeful riding as is here described i';, to say the least, 

 very extraordinary. E. \V. Claypole 



Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, Dec. 12, 18S0 



The Singular Methods of Travel the Wagtail adopts to Cross tlit 

 Mediterranean Sea. — In the autumn of 187S I spent several weeks 

 on the Island of Crete. On several occasions the papas — village 

 priest — a friendly Greek with whom I spent the greater part of 

 my time — frequently directed my attention to the twittering and 

 singing of small birds which he distinctly heard when a flock of 

 sand-cranes passed by on their southward journey. I told my 

 friend that I could not see any small birds, and suggested that 

 the noise came from the wings of the large ones. This he denied, 

 saying, " No, no ! I know it is the chirping of small birds. Ttey 

 are on the backs of the crane^. I have seen them frequently fly 

 up and alight again, and are always with them when they stop 

 to rest and feed." I was still sceptical, for with the aid of a 

 field-glass I failed to discover the "small birds" spoken of. I 

 inquired of several others, and found the existence of these little 

 feathered companions to be a niatter of general belief among 

 both old and young. I suggested that possibly the small birds 

 might go out from the shore a short distance and come in with 

 the cranes. "No, no," was the general answer, " they come 

 over from Europe with them." I certainly heard the chirping 

 and twittering of birds upon several different occasions, both 

 inland and out upon the sea. But in spite of the positive state- 

 ments of the natives I could not believe their theory until con- 

 vinced one day while fishing about fifteen miles from the shore, 

 when a flock of cranes passed quite near the yacht. The fisher- 

 men, hearing the "small bird«," drew my attention to their 

 chirping. Presently one cried out " Thtre's one," but I failed to 

 catch sight of it. Whereupon one of them discharged his flint- 

 lock. Three small birds rose up from the flock and soon disap- 

 peared among the cranes. 



I subsequently inquired of several scientific men, among whom 

 were two ornithologists, as to the probability of such a state of 

 affairs. They all agreed that it could not be, and T, too, was 

 forced to cling to my original judgment, and let the matter go. 

 Recently however while reading the Garteiilaiih my atten- 

 tion was attracted to an article bearing directly upon the subject. 

 The writer, Adolf Ibeling, tells the same story, and adds the 

 statements of some ornithologists of distinction, which makes 

 the whole matter so striking and interesting that I quote the 

 paragraph from his book : — 



" Shortly after my arrival in Cairo I greeted various old German 

 friends among the birds that I observed in the palm-garden of 

 our hotel. First, naturally, was the sparrow, the impudent pro- 

 letariat — I had almost said social democrat, because the whole 

 world to-day has that bad word in the mouth. He appeared to 

 me to be more shameless than ever in the land of the Pharaohs, 

 for he flew without embarrassment on the breakfast table, and 

 picked off the crumbs and bits from every unwatched place. But 

 the mark of honour we paid to the \\'agtails, and in truth chiefly 

 because we did not then know that the wagtails were birds of 

 passage. We had thought that they passed the winter in Southern 

 Europe, or at farthest as many of them do, in Sicily and the 

 Grecian Islands. That they came to Africa, and especially to 

 Nubia and Abyssinia, was then unknown to us. This appeared 

 to us singularly strange, nay, almost incredible, particularly on 

 account of the peculiar flight of the wagtail, which it is well 

 known always darts intermittingly through the air in longer or 

 shorter curves, and apparently, every few moments, interrupts 



its flight to sit again and ' wag its tail.' But there was the fact, 

 and could not be denied. Everywhere in the gardens of Cairo 

 you could ; ee them under the palms that border the banks of the 

 Nile ; on the great avenues that lead to the pyramids ; nay, 

 even on the pyramids themselves in the middle of the desert. 

 And there it was that I first heard of this singular phenomenon. 



" One evening we were sitting at the foot of the pyramid of 

 Cheops, sipping our cup of fragrant Mocha and in jolly conver- 

 sation, rolling up clouds of blue smoke from our Korani cigar- 

 ettes. We were waiting for the sinking of the sun to make 

 our return to Cairo. The deep silence of the surrounding desert 

 possessed something uncommonly solemn, only now and then dis- 

 tuibed by the cry of the hoar e fishhawks far above u«. Still higher 

 the pelicans were grandly circling. Their flight, though heavy 

 when seen from anear, possesses a majesty in the distance at- 

 tained by no other bird. Right before us several wagtails were 

 hopping around and 'tilting.' They were quite tame, and flew 

 restlessly hither and thither. On this occasion I remarked, ' I 

 could not quite understand how these bir.'s could make the long 

 passage of the Mediterranean.' Sheik Ibrahim heard this from 

 our interpreter. The old Bedouin turned to me v. ith a mixture 

 of French and Arabic as follows, which the interpreter aided us 

 to fully comprehend ; — 



" 'Do you not know, Hadretch (noble sir), that the^e small 

 birds are borne over the sea by the larger ones ?' 



"I laughed, as did our friends; for at first we thought we 

 had misunderstood hini ; but no : the old man continued quite 

 naturally : — 



" ' Every child among us knows that. The-e little birds are 

 much too weak to make the long sea journey with their own 

 strength. This they know very well, and therefore wait for the 

 storks and cranes and other large birds, and settle themselves 

 upon their backs. In this way they allow themselves to be 

 borne over the sea. The large birds submit to it willingly ; for 

 they like their little guests, who by their merry twitterings help 

 to kill the time on the long voyage.' 



" It a| peared incredible to us. We called to a pair of brown 

 Bedouin boys, pointed out the wagtails to them, and inquired : — 



" ' Do you know whence come these small birds ? ' 



" ' Certainly,' they answered. ' The Abu Saad (the stork) 

 carried them over the sea.' 



"At supper, in the Hotel du Nil, I related the curious story 

 to all present, but naturally enough found only unbelieving ears. 



"The only one who did not laugh was the Privy Councillor 

 Heu'glin, the famous African traveller, and, excepting Brehm, 

 the most celebrated ornithologist of our time for the birds of 

 Africa. I turned to him after the meal, and inquired of his 

 faith. The good royal councillor smiled in his caustic way, and 

 with a merry twinkle remarked : ' Let the others laugh : they 

 know nothing about it. I do not laugh, for the thing is known 

 to me. I should have recently made mention of it in my work 

 if I had had any strong personal proof to justify it. We must 

 be much more carefnl in such things than a mere story-teller or 

 novel-writer ; we must have a proof for everything. I consider 

 the ca^e probalile, but as yet cannot give any warrant for it.' 



"My discovery, if I may so call it, I had kept to myself, even 

 after Henglin had thus expressed himself, and wculd even now 

 maintain silence on the sutrject had I not recently discovered a 

 new authority for it." 



I read lately in the st cond edition of Petermann's great book 

 of travels the following : — 



" Prof. Roth of Munich related to me in Jerusalem that the 

 well-known Swedish traveller, Hedenborg, made the following 

 interesting:' observation on the Island of Rhodes, where he 

 stopped. In the autumn tide, when the storks come in flocks 

 over the sea to Rhodes, he often heard the songs of birds without 

 beinc able to discover them. Once he followed a flock of 

 storks, and as they lighted he saw small birds fly up from their 

 backs, which in this manner had been borne over the sea. The 

 distance prevented him from observing to which species ot 

 singing birds they belonged." 



Thus wrote the famous geographer Petermann. Prof. Roth 

 and Hedenborg and Heuglin are entirely reliable authors. This 

 was a matter of great curiosity to me, and after I found others 

 had made simdar observations and expressed them in print, I 

 thought they would be of no less curiosity and interest on this 

 side of the Atlantic, and equally deserving of public notice. 1 

 hope that connoisseurs, amateurs, and experts may be excited by 

 this to extend their observation in this line also. The instinct of 

 animals is still, in spite of all our observations and experience. 



