TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 403 
2. Some Features in the Diurnal Migrations of Pipits, Wagtails, and 
Swallows, as observed at Tuskar Rock Light-Station, Co. Wez- 
ford. By Professor C. J. Parren, M.A., M.D., Sc.D. 
In certain periods of spring and autumn a stream or procession of migrants 
passes the Tuskar Rock Light-station daily. Owing to the barren nature of the 
Rock—wave-swept to a large extent in rough weather—paucity of food, and lack 
of fresh water, comparatively few of the travellers descend and alight. As they 
hasten past, the altitude of their flight relative to the level of the lantern is a 
matter of interest, seeing that so many nocturnal migrants strike the glass. 
Most birds direct their flight towards the land, 7.c., S.E. to N.W. or due 
E. to W. Even birds presumably on emigration seem.to make for the land. 
Pipits and wagtails travel about twenty miles an hour; swallows and martins 
about 90 miles an hour. On account of the very limited area of the Rock and 
the considerable altitude at which many of the birds fly, the descending flight 
for the purpose of alighting, when attempted, is almost perpendicular. Several 
original photographs from life of the species dealt with in this paper have been 
secured and used as illustrations. 
SYDNEY. 
FRIDAY, AUGUST 21. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. Dr. R. C. L. Perkins’ Researches on the Colour-Groups of Hawaiian 
Wasps. By Professor E. B. Poutton, F.R.S. 
Dr. Perkins’ researches, recorded in ‘Fauna Hawaiiensis,’ in ‘ Proc. Ent. 
Soc., Lond.,’ 1912, p. lvi, and ‘ Trans. Ent. Soc., Lond.,’ 1912, p. 677, have 
thrown a flood of light upon the evolution of colour-groups in one of the most 
isolated of all the land areas that afford favourable conditions for a fauna and 
flora. It is probable that the comparatively simple phenomena exhibited in the 
Sandwich Islands will be found to have a special bearing upon the infinitely more 
complex conditions found in the most isolated of the inhabited continents. 
The only indigenous wasps of the Sandwich Islands belong to the genus 
Odynerus (in the broad sense), and Dr. Perkins concludes that the 102 species 
have been derived from two original immigrants—a black, yellow-banded species 
from some unknown direction, and at a much later but still very ancient date, 
a black, dark-winged species probably from Asia. The latter is extremely 
dominant, but it found the islands already occupied, and has thus only split 
up into four species, as against the ninety-eight produced by the original invader, 
Dr. Perkins similarly concludes that the fifty-three indigenous bees, all 
belonging to the genus Nesoprosopis, and the eighteen indigenous Fossores 
(Crabronide) were derived respectively from a single Asiatic immigrant bee and 
a single Asiatic Crabronid. 
This assemblage of closely related species of wasps has formed colour-groups 
in the different islands, attracting also many of the species of bees and Fossores. 
Kauai, the most N.W. island, possesses only one important colour-group— 
black, dark-winged insects with two white or yellow bands. Here the pattern 
of the earliest immigrant wasp was probably retained, although combined with 
dark wings, perhaps due to mimicry of the second immigrant. The latter on 
Kauai has given rise to species with yellow bands. 
Oahu, the next island proceeding in a S.E. direction, has four colour- 
groups, of which two resemble that on Kauai in the possession by some species 
of pale bands, although fainter than in the N.W. island. Another group con- 
taining black, dark-winged insects is probably due to a mimetic approach 
towards the second original immigrant, a very abundant insect. The fourth 
group is much marked with red. 
DiDLe 
