TKANSAOTIONS OF SECTION D. — DEPT. ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 605 



tlie writer, who went on to relate liis o■v^^l experiences, and gave an account of 

 observations he had made this summer on the bogs of Central Wales. An instance 

 was mentioned in which a snipe, on a still evening in June last, had drummed for 

 iifty minutes, flying roimd the writer's head, and this very favourable opportunitj- 

 had enabled the closest observations to be made. The actions of the bird were 

 minutely described, and it was shown that in the downwai-d sweep of the bird, 

 when it ' drimimed,' the wings were beaten very rapidly \\'ith regular strokes, and 

 the vibratory sounds falling on the ear at the time were exactly coincident tvit.h 

 those strokes ; at the same time the tail was spread out like a fan, and the writer 

 contended that the soimd was produced by the air being driven by the wings at 

 each stroke through the rigid feathers of the tail, as when they are blown on with 

 witli quick puffs, emitted from the lips, a sound resembling the ' drumming ' noise is 

 heard. Were the sound produced alone by the wings, it would be heard continually 

 throughout the bird's aerial course ; but as this is not the case, it can only be due 

 to the combined action of the wings and tail, when the latter is spread. 



7. On the Migration of Birds, and Messrs. Brown and Cordeaux's Method of 

 obtaining Systematic Observations of the same at Lighthouses and Light- 

 ships. By Alfred Newton, M.A., F.B.S. 



Citing a passage from an article by the Duke of Argyll (' Contemporary Review,' 

 July 1880, p. 1), the author met with a direct denial the Duke's assertion that of 

 'the army of the birds 'it may be said that 'it cometh not with observation,' 

 pointing oiit that all we know of the migration of birds arises from observation, 

 and all we do not know, from the want of it ; remarking, also, that if it were not 

 for observation, we should not know that birds migrate at all, and that it is by 

 renewed observation alone that we can hope to know more of their mio-raton' 

 movements. The author then proceeded to describe briefly the nocturnal passage 

 of birds, as noticed by himself at Cambridge for the past seventeen years, and urged 

 the importance of similar but more systematic observations at other stations. 

 Remarking upon the especial advantages of lighthouses and lightships for this 

 purpose, he called attention to the successful attempt made last year, with the 

 sanction of the authorities of the Trinity House and the Commissioners of Northern 

 Lights, by Mr. J. A. Har\'ie Brown and Mr. Cordeaux, to obtain a series of obser- 

 vations from the lighthouses and lightships on the coasts of Scotland and the east 

 coast of England, the results of which were embodied by those gentlemen in a 

 Report (printed in the ' Zoologist ' for May 1880), and showed that returns were 

 received from two-thirds of the English stations, and as regards the Scottish, from 

 about two-thirds of those on the west, and one-half of those on the east coast, thus 

 evincing the intelligent interest taken by the men there employed in the inquiiy. 

 This .single report naturally did not throw any new light on the subject ; but it 

 would be contrary to all experience if a series of such reports did not do so, and 

 lie tlierefore urged the Association to lend its countenance to the renewed attempts 

 which Messrs. Brown and Cordeaiux were making, and to encourage with its 

 approval those gentlemen and theu- fellow-workers — the men of the lighthouses 

 and lightships — who would best answer the question, whether knowledge of the 

 subject ' Cometh not with observation.' 



