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The Museum Gazette 



Heligoland is the best spot for studying bird migration. It is 

 on the direct route from north to south, as well as from east 

 to west. Dr. Gaetke, the famous ornithologist, says that 

 song thrushes, meadow pipits, and chaffinches, literally teem 

 on the island in autumn, and that skylarks on dark nights 

 pass across in enormous numbers ; he records the capture of 

 15,000 larks on one night alone on the shore, also 3,400 

 starlings, snipe and blackbirds in nets spread around the 

 panes of the lighthouse. Birds prefer to travel with a wind 

 blowing across their shoulder. It is stated that the little 

 blue-throated warbler can travel from Egypt to Heligoland, 

 a distance of nearly 2,000 miles, in a single night ! The 

 American golden plover is said to fly at the rate of 212 miles 

 per hour. These figures may be over-estimated, but it is 

 certain that migrating birds fly with such swiftness that they 

 break the glass — sometimes f inch thick — of the lighthouses 

 against which they strike. 



The mortality must be very great, and probably only a 

 small proportion of the vast army of birds which leave this 

 country every autumn ever return in the spring. 



ON THE PRESERVATION OF EGGS. 



Just as we all of us use processes of syllogistic reasoning, 

 although most of us know nothing of the term, so in house- 

 hold life we often find practices which might have been based 

 on sound knowledge of the laws of life, adopted by those who 

 never heard of biology. Some of these might not improbably 

 be improved were the science upon which they are unwittingly 

 based better studied ; and, on the other hand, by observing 

 the results which have been obtained by rule of thumb, the 

 student of natural law may often gain useful hints of further 

 knowledge. The best means for securing the retention of life 

 and the prevention of decomposition in the ova of the domestic 

 fowl is a matter of the utmost importance in its social and 



