810 



this matter I applied to Mr. Winge, Vice- Inspector at the Zoological 

 Museum, who has very kindly supplied me with the following re- 

 port: »Small crusts of mud, clay, etc., may he found on the heaks 

 and feet of the birds \ that are killed at the Danish light- ships 

 during migration and I consider such birds as Charadriiis phwialis, 

 Hcematopiis ostreologiis, Niimeniiis phceopiis, N. arqiiatus which are 

 frequent both on the shore and inland, particularly fitted for car- 

 rying about spores of algae etc. They fly excellently; they may be 

 able to travel the distance from Shetland to the Fseroes in about 

 four hours when the weather is favourable^; and thev wander 



^ Mr. Winge has afterwards sent me the feet of two larks which had fallen 

 down on the light -ship of Gedser in the autumn of 1904. I scraped 120 milli- 

 grammes of mud from these, b^urther a wing covert of a female blackbird, fallen at 

 the light-house of Skagen on the second of Nov. 1904, on which two things had stuck, 

 one of them a 2^e/«/a-fruit, which must probably have been carried from Norway. 



On March 3rd, 1905, I at length received a sample of earth from Inspector \Vinge, 

 with the following information: »Earth and fragments of plants from the feet of a 

 lapwing, fallen on the light-ship of Horns Reef, March 5th, 1905. The earth most likely 

 is from England or Holland.* When I received the sample its weight was 360 mgr. 

 Shortly after, I placed it in a Petri-glass under a hand-glass on filter-paper moistened 

 with well-boiled water. During the summer, some algse were developed, and Professor 

 \\'ille, to whom I sent the sample, has kindly stated them to be the following species: 



Nostoc sp. (most likel}'^ N. Linckice (Roth) Born.). 



Anaha'na sp. (most likely A. variabilis Kiitz). 



Ulothrix sp. (belonging to the //acc/da-group). 



Cystococciis hiimicola Naegl. 



Navicula sp. 



Moss-protonema (large and well developed) and hyphae of fungi. 



As it is of the greatest importance to know whether the birds had been 

 soiled during the transport from the light-ship to the Zoological Museum of Copen- 

 hagen, I applied to Mr. Winge for information, and he kindly reported: »From the 

 letters of conversance I learn that all birds sent from the light-ship of Horns Reef 

 during the spring arrived in »boxes in paper«, that is small, tight, square, nailed 

 wooden boxes, made on board the ship and wrapped up in cap-paper. The boxes 

 were packed on the light-ship, lying in the North Sea about 21 Eng. miles west of 

 the coast of Jutland, and were not opened until they had arrived in my studj' 

 at the Zoological Museum. With the end of a clean knife I here knocked off the 

 earth that stuck to the lapwing's feet, and wrapped it up in a paper which was 

 left unopened till you opened it yourself. Mould and the like might possibly oc- 

 cur in the Museum but certainly nothing else.« 



I likewise think, that the species which developed in the earth cannot possibly 

 have been convened to the sample in my study at the Botanical Museum. Mould 

 and the like might also have been convened to the sample here, but such forms 

 were not developed at all. The species found were all earth-plants, and we can 

 certainly take it for granted therefore that thej^ were present in the sample, when 

 the bird fell on the light-ship. 



^ Compare Wille: ^Fsereernes Ferskvandsalger« p. 18. 



