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BIBB NOTES AND NEWS. 



cases it was impossible to observe living birds in 

 any other way, on account both of their shyness 

 and of the distant regions in which so many 

 species made their homes. Hundreds of exotic 

 species existed in museums, of whose life-history 

 nothing was known ; and bird-students saw with 

 satisfaction that much more attention than formerly 

 was given to this subject at the Zoological Gardens. 

 The value of private study was instanced by Mr. 

 Meade-Waldo's contributions to the history of the 

 sand-grouse, and by other observations. In an 

 interesting debate, some reference was made to 

 the health and happiness (or otherwise) of birds in 

 captivity, this being maintained on the ground of 

 the longevity of some captive birds, while one 

 speaker referred to the case of chained eagles at 

 Bucharest, which were kept as watch-dogs, and 

 were, in his opinion, quite happy. 



The most useful part of the discussion, however, 

 from the Bird Protection point of view, was the 

 plea made by Mr. A. F. Wiener for an export duty 

 to check the importation of birds, especially of 

 finches from West Africa. These are procured by 

 dealers in immense numbers — he had seen 25,000 

 selling in Brussels at 25c. a pair — and a large 

 percentage die. Such cruelty and waste is inde- 

 fensible, and if Colonial governments would levy 

 an export duty, say of a shilling a head, the over- 

 crowding and loss of life might be largely prevented, 

 and only those who have a real interest in birds 

 would find it worth while to purchase. 



Migration. 



The one point which Mr. Seth-Smith holds can- 

 not be studied in caged birds — migration — was the 

 subject of a deeply interesting paper written by Dr. 

 Otto Herman, and most sympathetically and clearly 

 read by Madame Herman. The Congress was 

 founded, to a great extent, to develop international 

 study of this question ; and at the Paris gathering 

 it was decided to focus the work on the movements 

 of the swallow and the stork. Hungary, however, 

 was the only country that took any actual steps to 

 carry out this recommendation, and the investiga- 

 tions conducted afford a model for the rest. With 

 regard to the swallow, nearly 6000 masters of 

 elementary science noted on postcards the arrival 

 of the bird all over the country, and these dates 

 were entered on separate maps for each day at the 

 Central Ornithological Office. The mean date of 

 arrival in Hungary was shown, on the basis of more 

 than 10,000 data, to be April 7th. For the cuckoo 

 30,000 data had been collected from the whole area 

 of distribution, with the exception of Spain, the 



greater part of Italy, and the Balkans. From 

 England a marvellous series of records had been 

 supplied by Mr. Southwell ; they were made by 

 the Marsham family in Stratton-Stawless, who kept 

 faithful note of the arrival of the bird, with a few 

 breaks, from 1739 t0 l 9°A- Not, however, until 

 every country was as well explored and worked as 

 Hungary had been, would the true nature of the 

 phenomena of migration be revealed. 



Other Papers. 



It is not possible to give any account here of the 

 many papers which, valuable to the systematic 

 ornithologist and biologist, had no direct concern 

 with the work of the Royal Society for the Pro- 

 tection of Birds. Dr. Hartert's paper on " The 

 Principal Aims of Modern Ornithology " did indeed 

 touch definitely on the subject, in its advocacy of 

 reserves in particular ; and Mr. Frank M. Chap- 

 man's two lantern lectures on the Flamingo and 

 the Brown Pelican could hardly fail to rouse keen 

 desire for the protection of these two splendid 

 species. 



One of Mr. Chapman's first slides showed that 

 the Pelican starts life under unusually advan- 

 tageous conditions ; not only does he enjoy the 

 companionship of his brothers, and the unremitting- 

 attention of father and mother, during the first 

 eight weeks of his life, but he is brought up in a 

 community — the pelicans always choosing their 

 nesting places in a colony, in damp marshy ground 

 near suitable provender for appeasing the voracious 

 appetites of their young. When the mother bird 

 is tired of sitting on her nest, she gives her mate 

 a warning note, a pre-arranged signal, used at no 

 other time, to which he answers in a similar 

 key ; and after a little preening and smoothing of 

 feathers, they amicably change places, and she 

 goes off to stretch her limbs, and to find food for 

 herself— and after the eggs are hatched, also for 

 the young brood — returning to the nest, and 

 awaiting in her turn for her mate's signal to take 

 up her duties at home while he takes up the duties 

 abroad, and once more the same preening and 

 ceremony is gone through. When the young are 

 first hatched their diet must be pre-digested and 

 put down their throats, but later they prefer doing 

 this work for themselves, and extract the fish whole 

 from their parents' throats, by almost getting their 

 own heads clown in the struggle. Then comes the 

 process of digestion, and whether from an innate 

 love of acting, or for less romantic reasons, for 

 some seconds after swallowing the fish the young 

 bird drops down feigning death, but soon rises up 



