42 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



opinion, it had been dead probably not longer than the previous 

 night, adding that the weather was very warm at the time, and 

 that the bird when he picked it up was apparently quite fresh. 

 Assuming this to have been the case, it would appear that rapid 

 decomposition must have set in very shortly after death, a state 

 of affairs which I have noted in the case of several other 

 emaciated birds obtained from light-stations.* The spirit in 

 which the bird was immersed somewhat failed to fix the disinte- 

 grating skin adequately, hence the peeling of the epidermis 

 above mentioned. Supposing, then, that this bird had been 

 dead only since the previous hours of darkness, the inference 

 that it struck the lantern and fell on the rock (killed outright or 

 mortally wounded, so that it died before daylight) is exceedingly 

 unlikely. And for two cogent reasons : Firstly, because of its 

 starved condition, the wing-muscles in particular having under- 

 gone marked atrophy. For, having made post-mortem examina- 

 tions on some hundreds of birds which met their death by 

 striking the lantern, I have never found them — or at most 

 with very rare exceptions — in any other than excellent con- 

 dition, far fatter than when procured from their sheltered 

 natural habitat at an intermigration period of their existence. 

 Indeed, the accumulation of reserve adipose tissue, which is 

 to be found on migrating birds, forms quite a remarkable and 

 an interesting feature. And this holds good for rare migrants 

 as well as for those which visit the lanterns regularly in 

 abundant numbers.! Secondly, because there were no signs 

 whatever of injury on the body, whereas birds which collide 

 with the lantern}: almost invariably display marks of violence, 

 oftentimes extensive in character. 



* Fat birds invariably keep better than emaciated ones, often resisting 

 decomposition for a very considerable time, and fat small birds when soaked 

 iu spirit for some days will keep almost indefinitely. 



•f- Vide my articles on " Asiatic Skylark on Migration," ' Zoologist/ 

 September, 1913, pp. 333-336; also "Aquatic Warbler on Migration," 

 ibid., March, 1915, pp. 81-92. 



I Owing to the swiftness of flight and the small resistance which such a 

 thin medium as air offers, birds are liable to damage themselves badly 

 should they collide with any resisting object. I have examined many birds 

 which lost their lives through striking telephone-wires, flagstaffs, weather- 

 cocks and other objects on pinnacles, and found great lacerated wounds and 

 extensive fractures of limbs, beak, and skull. 



