Its ill the spring and autumn on their journeys to and fro. 
These comings and goings are by no means clearly understood, 
for not only do the movements take place mainly at night but 
the actual times and to some extent the seasons of the move- 
ments are confused by the loitering" of non-breeding birds of 
the same species and a hundred and one other complicated 
events. In Europe and in a few otheY parts of the world the 
phenomena of migration have been intensively studied and in 
certain cases the movements of a species are almost as well 
tnown as if the route and attendant circumstances were marked 
on a map ! 
How desirable it wonld be if we could do this in Maiaya, 
or even if we understood the fundamentals of the situation well 
enough to distinguish between the two mam streams of birds 
that arrive on our shores, the one roughly speaking from the 
north-east and the other from the north-west. Careful notes 
as to dates of the first appearance in Singapore and at places 
along the coasts of the cattle-egret, the migratory bee-eater, 
the scattered fiocks of young shrikes, the lively wagtails and 
the mysterious passing of the flocks of black and white cuckoo- 
falcons would all help. Some of the migratory birds seem to 
travel south by using the small islands in the Straits of Malacca 
as stepping stones, others follow the mountain range down the 
back of the Peninsula. The Anamba Islands in the South China 
Sea swarm with non-resident birds in the autumn and it i& 
probable that although most of the migratory hsmds follow the 
coast lines some of them migrate in a straight line directly ta 
the south of their breeding grounds. 
Next to migration the best field of investigation, and cer- 
tainly an easier one to work in, lies in the breeding habits of 
iOur common local birds. By avoiding an endless repetition Qf 
records concerning well-known facts such as the position of the 
nest, number, size and colour of the eggs, etc. in common 
birds (although be it noted that even here much remains to be 
done) and paying attention to other many neglected points 
particularly useful results would accrue, 
