ON BIRD MIGRATION. 289 



Bird Miqrationin Great Britain and Ireland. — 8ixtli and Final Report 

 of the Committee, consisting of Pi'ofessor NEWroN (Chairman), 

 Rev. E. P. Knubley (Secretary), Mr. John A. Hauvie-Brown, 

 Ml-. R. M. Barrington, Mr. A. H. Evans, and Dr. H. 0. Forbes, 

 appointed to ivork out the details of the Observations on the Migra- 

 tion of Birds at Lighthouses and Lightships, 1880-1887. 



Ix submitting this, which, according to the intimation more than once 

 previously given, your Committee intend to be their last Report, they 

 again have the pleasure of including a summary by Mr. William Eigle 

 Clarke of the observations on the highly interesting movements of two 

 well known species, the Starling [Stitrnus vulgaris) and the Rook 

 (Corvus fragilegus), which he has prepared with the same skill as he 

 exercised upon the six species he has treated in former R.eports, and with, 

 if possible, a greater expenditure of time and toil, on account of the 

 difficulty of coping with the details of such complicated movements as are 

 therein recorded. 



Your Committee feel that, while Mr. Clarke's work speaks for itself, 

 they find it hard to express their indebtedness to him for the labour he has 

 undergone in drawing up the eight summaries, a labour almost unrequited, 

 and so great that nothing but intense zeal would render its performance 

 possible. Everyone acquainted with the subject of Bird Migration will 

 admit that, owing to the plan followed by Mr. Clarke, so much informa- 

 tion in regard to the species whose movements he has worked out has 

 never been given before, and that within space which cannot be deemed 

 excessive. 



It will be observed that of the eight species which have been the chief 

 subjects of attention, only two, or three at most — the Swallow, the 

 Fieldfare, and, perhaps, the White Wagtail — are popularly considered to 

 be ' Migrants ' in this country, the others, being, as species, resident in it 

 throughout the year. Yet nothiiig has been more clearly proved than 

 that, as individuals, Song-Thrushes, Skylarks, Lapwings, Starlings, and 

 Rooks are migratory in the highest degree, a fact which had before been 

 known to comparatively few ornithologists, and wholly unsuspected by 

 the public at large, though these are among our most familiar birds. 

 The clear way in which this has been set forth by Mr. Clarke ought to 

 remove all misapprehension on this matter, and in itself almost justifies 

 the whole inquiry, instituted more than twenty years ago, since an obvious 

 inference is that many other species must show the same character, and 

 hence that Migration, among birds of these islands at least, instead of 

 being the exceptional quality it was once thought, may be general. 



It would no doubt be extremely desirable for more species to be 

 subjected to the same rigid examination as the eight upon which 

 Mr. Clarke has laboured, but your Committee believe that the results 

 would hardly repay the toil. It is not to be expected, of course, that any 

 two species, even among those most nearly allied, would be precisely alike in 

 their movements, but the amount of difference observable would probably 

 be immaterial, and nearly all the species which appear at the Lighthouses 

 and Lightships could most likely be referred to one or other of the 



1903. U 



