Jloofe J^etDS anD l^e\)ietD0 



Studies in Bird Migration. By Wil- 

 liam Eagle Clarke, Keeper of the 

 Natural History Department, the Royal 

 Scottish Museum. With Maps, Weather 

 Charts, and other Illustrations. London, 

 Gurney and Jackson: Edinburgh, Oliver 

 and Boyd. 1912. 2 vols. 8 vo. xiv-l-323, 

 viii-l-346 pp, XXV, plates. 



One cannot read this important work 

 without being impressed by the enthusi- 

 asm which, year after year, has induced 

 its author to pursue his field studies often 

 under conditions which only one inspired 

 and stimulated by genuine love of his 

 subject could have successfuly encoun- 

 tered. 



Few men have had wider personal 

 experience in the study in nature of bird 

 migration, and, fortunately for the science 

 of ornithology, in publishing the results 

 of his prolonged observations, the author 

 has not presented absurd hypotheses as 

 facts, but has marshaled his vast amount 

 of data in a manner which makes his 

 work an authoritative source of infor- 

 mation. 



Americans particularly should be grate- 

 ful for the labor which has placed within 

 their reach an exhaustive survey of 

 migration phenomena in Great Britain, 

 and the publication of these volumes 

 removes further excuse for our ignorance 

 in this direction. When will some Amer- 

 ican ornithologist make ignorance of the 

 facts connected with migration in Amer- 

 ica equally inexcusable in Great Britain? 



After an introductory summary of 

 ancient and modern views concerning the 

 migration of birds, Mr. Clarke, in 

 approaching his own special field, writes: 

 "It may be asserted, without fear of 

 contradiction, that no country in the 

 world is more favorably situated than 

 our own for witnessing the movements 

 of migratory birds; that there is none 

 in which the many phases of the phe- 

 nomena are of a more varied nature. 

 . . ." Nevertheless, but not without fear 

 of contradiction, we venture to claim that 



our own country affords the local student 

 of migration even greater opportunities 

 for observation than are to be found in 

 Great Britain, while in any broad, general 

 survey of the subject and its underlying 

 causes, the student in America has inesti- 

 mable advantages. A much larger list 

 of migratory birds, more pronounced 

 seasonal changes, and more highly diver- 

 sified topography, including river valleys 

 and mountain chains (the latter permitting 

 a study of altitudinal migration), and, 

 above all, a breadth of territory in which, 

 happily, a chain of cooperating observers, 

 all reporting to a government bureau, 

 can follow some species throughout their 

 entire migrational movements, and others 

 from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic 

 circle, are to be numbered among the 

 special advantages of the student of 

 migration in America, as every one famil- 

 iar with Professor Cooke's papers will 

 readily admit. On certain points in the 

 Great Lakes, and on headlands and 

 islands along our coasts, we also enjoy 

 those opportunities for the study of the 

 seasonal journeys of birds under those 

 conditions which Mr. Clarke so admirably 

 describes. 



Excess of ornithological patriotism, 

 however, must not lead us from a further 

 consideration of Mr. Clarke's valuable 

 work which, after a detailed seasonal 

 analysis of British bird-life, discusses it 

 from a geographical aspect with partic- 

 ular reference to places of arrival and 

 departure and routes of migration, and 

 in this chapter and a succeeding one on 

 "Weather Influences" are recorded many 

 facts of wide general interest. 



Mr. Clarke then selects for treatment 

 in detail several abundant and highly 

 migratory species, the remainder of Vol- 

 ume I being devoted to a report of his 

 observations at the Eddystone light- 

 house. 



The second volume is wholly given to 

 records of the author's observations on 



(232) 



