REPORTS. 



169 



roughly stratified alternations of sand and clay. The under- 

 lying rock is decompose! gneiss, with intrusive veins of 

 granite corresponding to that at Cobo. 



C. G. De La Mare, Sec. Geo. Sect. 



Report of the Ornithological Section, 1910. 



The recent departure from the island of Mr. E. D. 

 Marquand, A.L.S., has deprived the Ornithological Section of 

 its valued Secretary, whose annual Report on the bird migra- 

 tion to and from the island it has been our privilege and 

 profit to hear read for several years past. 



In 1889 (twenty-one years ago) I commenced making a 

 few notes on some of our summer bird visitors, and having, 

 with a few additions, continued these observations regularly 

 since, I offer this as my sole excuse for attempting, however 

 imperfectly, to keep up the work begun by Mr. Marquand for 

 our Society in connection with bird migration here. Several 

 ladies and gentlemen, whose names appear lower down, have 

 assisted me materially with this Report, and to each and all 

 of these I am deeply indebted for notes, the more especially 

 as my own observations are mostly confined to St. Martin's, 

 while some of theirs include the district of the Vale at one 

 end of the island and Torteval at the other. The bigger the 

 field of observation the better. 



In sending me his notes, Mr. J. S. Hocart, of Les 

 Mielles, Vale, wrote : — " To all appearance I believe that 

 birds are getting each year scarcer at the Vale. The large 

 area of ground now covered with glass, and the disappear- 

 ance of trees, bushes, &c, which used to afford them shelter 

 and cover, is probably helping to keep them away. The 

 great number of air-guns now used by boys is also depriving 

 us of our songsters ; even the chirping sparrow is far less 

 abundant than it was at one time." 



Mr. Hocart's reference to air-guns has struck a sympa- 

 thetic chord. For the sake of the poor defenceless birds I 

 heartily wish there was no such thing as air-guns. In many 

 instances the little bird shot at is not killed outright, only 

 wounded more or less badly, and left, very often with perhaps 

 a broken wing or leg, to die a painful, lingering death. 

 I certainly think something might be done to protect the 

 birds from this cruelty, if in no other way by licensing the 

 owners of air-guns and fixing an age, before attaining which 

 boys should not be allowed to use them. I wish our legisla- 



