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ist April, 1884. 



Professor Everett in the Chair. 



Robert Lloyd Patterson, Esq., J.P., read a Paper on 

 MIGRATORY BIRDS. 





Mr. Patterson said, among the many beautiful objects with 

 which nature has so richly endowed this world, there are none 

 more attractive than birds. To the lovers of nature there is 

 no more interesting occupation than to observe their elegant 

 forms, beautiful colours, and graceful movements, while their 

 varied habits and the periods of arrival and departure of those 

 species that are migratory, invest the study with a fascination 

 all the greater on account of the mystery in which some of 

 these movements are still involved. The number of different 

 species of birds hitherto recorded as inhabiting the entire globe 

 amounts to about 6000 ; those inhabiting Europe to 624, and 

 those found in the British Islands to 376 ; but of these 165 

 are only occasional visitors, thus reducing the number of regular 

 British birds to 21 1 species. Some of these have been obtained 

 in England but not in Ireland, and vice versa. Of the migra- 

 tory species the larger number are summer migrants, coming 

 in the spring to build their nests and rear their young, and 

 departing in the autumn to spend the winter in warmer climes. 

 Others again come in the late autumn or early winter, and leave 

 in spring. There is almost an infinite variety in the size, 

 form, and habits of birds. The disparity between the largest 

 bird, the ostrich, and the smallest, the humming bird, is 

 almost as great as that between an elephant and a mouse. The 

 mutual adaptation of form and habit all through the animal 



