8 



ORNITHOLOGICAL IMPOSSIBILITIES. 



there are the infinite changes of sea and cloudland — wonderful 

 effects of parting day, as the sun dips beyond the western wold and 

 when for a short space the grey river is transformed as burnished 

 copper, and the oozy mudflats are purple with reflected light. Then 

 there is the solitude and all-aloneness of the place — never more felt 

 perhaps than at night when, from the clearness of the air itself, the 

 soft light of star and planet glows as silver lamps let down in space, 

 when the far-off cry of shore birds comes low and subdued, and the 

 whispering breeze through the wiry seagrass is as the tinkling of 

 fairy harpstrings, and beyond and above all minor notes the 

 intermittent boom of the great sea, like a child sobbing itself to sleep 

 in the darkness. 



Ornithological Impossibilities.— it has often struck me as unintelligible 

 why some, even scientific men, have proclaimed the occurrence in this country of 

 birds which inhabit distant regions, without having ascertained the possibility or 

 impossibility of their having flown here. Now, it seems to me probable 

 that some species of, say American, migratory birds which go to the far north to 

 breed might appear here, they, whether old or young, having travelled across 

 from land to land where the distance is not so great, and having once got across 

 from one continent to the other, their migratory instinct would probably lead them 

 southwards ; but the reported occurrence of American species which do not 

 migrate very far north, should I think be always open to suspicion. It must be 

 a not very difficult matter to find out the distance birds really can fly, and 

 common sense I think tells us that this should be ascertained before credit is given 

 for what may prove to be an impossibility. 



Ornithology, as a study, is not merely noting the capture or the having 

 observed birds. The first thing to be done is to acquire Icnowledge so as to be 

 able to determine what a bird really is when obtained (not seen only), and this 

 knowledge can only be acquired by long training. One having gone through this 

 training (not as a bird stuffer only) is alone capable of forming an opinion. There 

 cannot be the least doubt but that hosts of the recorded notices of birds are 

 totally incorrect, even of those which have found their way into scientific works. 

 Were attention paid to this matter many of the reputed British species would have 

 to be omitted from our lists — amongst the rest the Swallow-tailed Kite, which is 

 merely a summer resident in North America, and apparently does not go far north 

 even in summer. Now most of our occasional visitants appear either in spring 

 or autumn during migration, and in such cases as the one mentioned, its migrations 

 would not in any circumstances, so far as we can judge, bring it this way. Shaky 

 evidence, ancient or modern, is of little value unless corroborated by facts which 

 are capable of being proved satisfactorily. 



There seems to be a desire to make collections of British birds. A correct one, 

 such as would give people an idea of what they are likely to meet with alive, 

 should contain the birds in the plumages in which alone they are actually met with 

 in this, not in the various plumages they acquire in other countries. Many of our 

 English birds (together with those reputed) have, perhaps, only appeared here in 

 immature plumage, but in collections a mature foreigner very oftemrepresents the 

 species, and gives a wrong impression, and not only so, but eventually the 

 foreigner is looked upon as if really obtained in this country. 



I hope the remarks I have made will not discourage any one from studying 

 ornithology. I only wish to point out how little is yet known substantially, and 

 how few there are whose judgment can be depended on. — C. M. Adamson, 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



Naturalist,, 



