ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 187 



The choice of subjects for an Address to an audience 

 composed of members devoted to such varied intellectual 

 pursuits, as are those of the Berwickshire Naturalists' 

 Club, is so wide, and the subjects themselves of so 

 diverse a nature, that it is no easy matter to select one 

 which shall be at the same time appropriate to the 

 occasion and of sufficiently general interest to the hearers. 



Considering, however, how closely our former Secretary 

 and lamented friend, Dv Hardy, was connected for many 

 yeais of his arduous life with the preparation of annual 

 reports on the Migration of Birds, and in view of 

 the fresh impetus now given to the study of that 

 most fascinating branch of Ornithology by the elaborate 

 and careful "Digest" of the Reports of the British 

 Association "Migration Committee" (1880-1S87) by Mr 

 W. E. Clarke, together with the admirable supplementary 

 "Analysis" on Migration in Ireland, just published by 

 Mr R. M. Barrington, I think that it may not be out 

 of place to devote the m.ain portion of my Address to 

 the discussion of the facts ascertained by various observers, 

 and in especial to the causes of migration and the ways 

 of migratory birds. Surely it may be considered peculiarly 

 fitting, in the very year when a special meeting has 

 been convened to unveil the Memorial Window to Dr 

 Hardy at Coldingham, to take the opportunity of dis- 

 coursing upon a branch of learning in which he was 

 ever wont to show the greatest interest. 



Before entering upon the details of the inquiry, it is 

 most needful to pay heed to the emphatic warning of 

 Professor Newton, in his "Dictionary of Birds" (p. 547), 

 that the two subjects of Migration and Geographical 

 Distribution of Birds must by no means be confounded, 

 as has not unfrequently been done by writers in the 

 past. It is obvious that the former depends to a 

 considerable extent upon the latter; but Geographical 

 Distribution, that is, the manner in which birds are 

 dispersed over the face of the globe, is a perfectly distinct 



