1886.} : Zoology. 819 
twenty lights. They were lighted for the first time on the even- 
ing of January Ist, 1886. On the night of May 8th following, a 
terrific thunderstorm passed over the city between the hours of 11 
P.M. and midnight. During the storm- the attention of the few 
people who were on the street at that time was attracted to the 
spectacle of a great number of birds hovering about this ring of 
lights and dashing at them. In the morning it was discovered 
that hundreds of dead birds were scattered about the foot of the 
tower, and hundreds more were found upon the roof of the build- 
ing. When the workmen ascended the tower to renew the car- 
bons in the lights, they found many of the globes occupied by the 
bodies of birds, some containing as many as eight, and many of 
the carbons had been broken off by the birds. Over two hundred 
bodies were picked up by one of the workmen attached to the 
building, which was but a small part of those carried away by the 
news-boys and others in the morning. A person who saw them 
before any were taken away, estimated that more than a thousand 
were killed. But even this was but a small portion of what were 
seen in the air about the tower. It is to be regretted that no per- 
son competent to determine the species of the birds killed on this 
occasion, was present when they were first observed. I under- 
stand that a few of them afterward fell into such hands, but I have 
heard no report. From the testimony of those who saw them 
ot appear to have been, for the most part, the smaller song- 
s. 
The question arises, why was this great number of birds at- 
tracted on this particular night, when, during a month previous, , 
while the migration was going on, no birds had been seen near 
the lights. Tt may be that they had been driven from their course 
the storm, and so brought in contact with the dazzling beacon; 
or, perhaps, as birds are known to fly at great heights when mi- 
Stating, the storm caused them to fly lower, and so brought them 
within the fatal influence. But several other storms of nearly 
equal violence had taken place in the night time within the two 
months of April and May, and with no similar attendant phe- 
nomena. The most reasonable conclusion, then, seems to 
that the storm on the night of May 8th was coincident with a 
ag ha ’ of bird-migration ; that the birds flew low to get beneath 
e low-hanging clouds and avoid the violent winds of the upper 
atmosphere, and so were brought into the vicinity of the lights, 
i in the intense darkness of the storm, were bewildered wi 
oo and either rushed to an untimely fate, or fluttered help- 
ly about until the storm passed away, leaving the sky clear 
So they could see to pursue their journey —F. E. L. Beal. 
BaMBEKE on Herepity.—The same Buletin contains an inter- 
ue paper by M. Ch. Van Bambeke, on heredity, in which the 
ories of Darwin, Haeckel, Nägeli, Pflüger and others are sub- 
