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SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct. 19, 1888. 



WOOLHOPE NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 

 At the last meeting, the Rev. M. G. Watkins, M.A., read 

 a paper on " The Migration of Birds," in the course of 

 which he said : — This subject is best divided into two 

 parts ; first, the history of and the views which have been 

 held on migration ; secondly, the phenomena of migration 

 and the general laws connected with it. 



The least observation showed men from the 

 earliest times that certain birds arrived and departed at 

 certain seasons. The first writer to take a scientific 

 interest in migration, whose speculations indeed were 

 not superseded for more than 2,000 years, was Aristotle. 

 He notes the analogy between the migration of fish and 

 of birds, and is the earliest writer to name the double 

 migration of birds, from the autumnal cold into warmer 

 regions, and from summer warmth again to colder 

 countries. Cranes, he says, fly facing the wind, which 

 is now found to be more or less the case with all birds. 

 He has discernment enough to pronounce that the fable 

 of their carrying a stone with them for ballast is untrue. 

 Quails cannot fly with ease in showery weather, hence 

 they utter their call to each other as they fly, being in 

 difficulties. On their outward journey they have no 

 leaders, but on their return they take with them the 

 quail-mother (probably the landrail), the long-tongued 

 bird (perhaps the greenshank), the night owl, and the 

 ortalan. The latter calls to them through the night. 

 Cranes, too, choose a leader, and rest all night on the 

 ground during their migrations, with their heads under 

 their wings, and standing on one leg in turns, while the 

 leader, with eager neck, listens and looks out and gives 

 notice in case of alarm. 



The Roman Pliny, 300 years afterwards, is much 

 more credulous. He repeats these stories of the crane. 

 " Some birds," he states, " make voyages over sea and 

 land to see strange countries." Quails settle at times in 

 great numbers on sails and masts, thus bearing down 

 the ships and sinking and drowning the sailors. They 

 choose companions to go with them, especially the 

 " glottis." " This bird," says Pliny, in his quaint fashion, 

 " is very forward at the first setting-out (as being desi- 

 rous to be a traveller, to see far countries and to change 

 the aire), and the first daies journey he undertaketh with 

 pleasure, but soone finding the tediousnesse and paines 

 in flying, he repents that ever he enterprised the voiage. 

 To go backe again without company he is ashamed, and 

 to come lag behind he is as loth ; howbeit for that day he 

 holdeth out so-so, and never goeth further ; for at the 

 next resting-place that they come unto, he faire leaveth 

 the company and staieth there, where lightly he meeteth 

 with such another as himselfe, who the yere before was 

 left behind. And thus they do from time to time, yere 

 by yere." 



The first author to examine bird migration with a 

 scientific eye was undoubtedly Gilbert White, just a 

 century ago. He gives lists of summer and winter 

 migrants, with the times when the birds arrive or depart, 

 shows that food supplies are not the only cause of 

 migration, and that birds cross usually at the points 

 which give the shortest sea-voyage. But his sight was 

 clouded by the tenacity with which he clung to his 

 belief in the hibernation of birds.' Many theories have 

 since his time been enunciated by Weissman, Palmen, 

 and others, but the first requisite on which to found a 

 safe judgment, abundance of varied observations on 

 migration, was wanting. The influence of Darwinism, 

 too, has rendered it almost necessary for his disciples to 



assume that not instinct, but experience, not indeed the 

 experience of the individual but of the species, com- 

 pelled and guided migration. Ten years ago, there- 

 fore, it might be said that our scientific horizon with 

 sespect to migration was almost where it was in the 

 time of White of Selborne ; that is, our knowledge of 

 the subject had practically not advanced for a century. 



In 1879 a conviction had entered the minds of many 

 bird students that without more accurate observations 

 and abundance of them from all quarters of Great 

 Britain, no definite conclusions respecting the phenomena 

 of migration could be reached. A committee was in that 

 year appointed by the British Association (which soon 

 obtained the aid of the Trinity Board) to investigate and 

 register the phenomena of migration round our coasts. 

 The plan adopted was to issue circulars inviting light- 

 house-keepers to note and forward to the committee any 

 particulars of birds coming or going by day or night, and 

 especially of any which accidentally killed themselves by 

 striking against the lanterns. Sometimes as many as 200 

 birds in a night are killed on a lighthouse, chiefly land 

 birds ; marine birds seem to have acquired more expe- 

 rience. Starlings strike in the greatest numbers, wood- 

 cocks usually one at a time. Many of the lighthouse 

 men have now become expert in identifying birds, and 

 enjoy registering them. At the close of the year the 

 schedules are sent back to the committee, who then pro- 

 ceed to tabulate, and, if possible, draw conclusions from 

 them. The annually published volumes containing these 

 deductions are of deep interest to all lovers of birds. 



Birds, as a rule, it is found, follow the coast-lines in 

 their migrations. One common route is across the 

 Straits of Gibraltar, thence along the western shores of 

 the European continent. Another route leads by Malta 

 and Sicily to the shores of Italy and thence by the 

 Riviera. A third leads over the Alps into Austria and 

 Germany. Birds come across to England either from the 

 North Sea or by the shortest way across the Channel. 

 In the former case they generally fly over and sometimes 

 halt at the little island of Heligoland, and there some of 

 the most unexpected captures have taken place, while 

 careful watch has been kept upon all birds which pass 

 over. In a favourable season the number of these is very 

 great. A competent ornithologist, Herr Gatke, fortunately 

 lives there, and science owes much to his observations. 

 Almost all the birds of Europe and Northern Asia 

 migrate more or less, and, says Mr. Seebohm, " we may 

 lay it down as law, to which there is probably no excep- 

 tion, that every bird breeds in the coldest regions of its 

 migrations." He too regards migration as " a fact in the 

 history of birds of comparatively modern date." It has 

 often been debated what is the true home of migratory 

 birds, whether the country in which they breed or the 

 land they adopt as their winter quarters. The prepon- 

 derance of evidence is, Mr. Seebohm thinks, largely on 

 the side of the former theory ; and he adds, " the cause 

 of migration is want of food, not want of warmth. The 

 feathers of a Siberian jay or a Lapp tit are proof against 

 any cold." Yet the autumnal emigration from us depends 

 partly on temperature, partly on the period when young 

 birds are able to shift for themselves. Migration usually 

 takes place at night, but larks have been seen on the 

 Channel migrating by day. Heligoland is probably not 

 a hundred acres in extent, and its resident birds do not 

 appear to exceed a dozen species, but its value to 

 migratory birds as a resting place is so great that 

 150,000 larks have been caught there in a single night. 



