Meetings of Section, II. 45 



endeavour to become acquainted with the winter habitat 

 of our summer migrants to determine the meteorological 

 conditions influencing" migration, and to compare these 

 conditions with those obtaining- in both the winter and 

 summer ranges. 



It should also be oui* object to establish at important 

 points, e.g., on the North African and South European coasts, 

 a system for obtaining records of the passage of migrants 

 during the whole of the migration period, and in the case of 

 a few well-known birds, such as the Swallow and the Stork, 

 to avail ourselves, as regards Europe in any case, of the 

 large systems of railways and post offices. 



The results already obtained in Hungary were arrived at 

 by a system of observations made by professional ornitho- 

 logists, government foresters, and village schoolmasters, the 

 number of observers being sometimes over 6000, and the data 

 thus collected were worked out and published year by year. 



It would be most desirable if a committee of Ornithophœ- 

 nologists, and, in fact, ornithologists of all branches could 

 agree upon a system of principles to be observed in 

 collecting, recording, and working out the data. 



[The sitting then adjourned.] 



Saturday, June 17th. 



The Vice-President, Mr. H. Saundees, in the chair. 



Mr. J. H. Fleming read a paper on the various migrations 

 of Briimiich's Murre {Uria lomvia). After noticing in detail 

 the various occurrences during the last fourteen years he 

 went on to discuss the probable cause of these migrations, 

 more especially in those years in which the immigrations 

 were most marked. After noticing that they were not 

 accompanied by other allied species, the author points out 

 that for the cause of these migrations we must consider the 

 conditions in those places where this species winters alone. 

 Hudson's Bay is probably therefore the base whence these 

 birds came, and the author suggests that a comparatively 

 sudden lack of food, caused possibly by the complete freezing- 

 over of their feeding grounds to have been the motive cause. 

 He argues further that the first birds arrived south exhausted 



