Birds. 6957 



tions other individuals as being intermediate in their colouring 

 between the sooty and the gray specimens. It is consequently evi- 

 dent that the P. fuliginosa is a very variable species, much influenced 

 by age, and perhaps by food and temperature. Indeed, Mr. Water- 

 house (p. 293) believes that P. vulpina and P. fuliginosa are specifically 

 identical ; although I understand Mr. Gould considers them as 

 distinct. 



One of the earliest descriptions of the former animal, written by the 

 celebrated John Hunter, is in the Appendix to White's ' Journal of a 

 Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 278 (Lond. 1790), where the native 

 name of " Wha Tapoau Roo " is given, and it is accompanied with a 

 neatly coloured etching ; but the figure intended for the same species, 

 p. 150 in ' Phillip's Voyage to Botany Bay,' published the year before, 

 is extremely bad. 



Remarks on the Winter Visits to the British Isles of European 

 Summer Migrants, By John R. Kinahan, F.L.S., M.R.I.A.* 



The migration of birds has been from earliest times an object of 

 attention and admiration even to the unscientific. I need not more 

 than allude to the frequent references to, and accurate descriptions of 

 it, which occur in the oldest classics; and even among unlettered 

 savages at the present day we find the migrations of birds anxiously 

 watched for, and in some cases accurately predicted. It is therefore 

 no matter of surprise that scientific men should have long ago made 

 its phenomena a subject of study, and have traced many of its laws. 

 There are, however, certain anomalies in distribution, in reference to 

 the occurrence, at irregular intervals, of species which, in closely 

 adjoining countries, are migratory. These, it appears, have not 

 attracted as much attention as they deserve, and are connected with 

 migration. Of these the most remarkable is that to which the title of 

 this paper refers, viz., the occurrence of summer migrants in winter. 

 Before entering on this subject, however, it will be necessary to lay 

 down briefly what is here understood by migration in birds. In a 

 former communication (Proc. Dubl. Nat. Hist. Soc. vol. ii. p. 91), 

 when treating on the distribution of ferns in Ireland, three general 

 laws were enunciated as governing the distribution of organized 



* Read before the Natural History Society of Dublin, January 13, 1860. Com- 

 municaled by the author. 



