64 
The Emu. 
opinion of the writer, ought to receive the early and practical 
attention of the Council. Members of the Union, it is to be 
hoped, will be found in widely separated localities of Australasia, 
not merely willing but anxious, as far as in them lies, to collect 
information about birds which are most common in their 
districts, and communicate it for the general information and 
entertainment of bird-lovers. By such means we may be able in 
time to determine the area of greatest production — the very 
cradle or nest-land — of species ; trace the radii of distribution 
from it, discover the occurrence of varieties and the conditions 
by which they have been evolved or created. Only by close 
and continuous observation will we be able to complete the list 
of Australasian native birds, and their range within the sphere 
of our observations. 
The residence of every member, in a certain sense, must 
be an observatory station. Your true ornithologist cannot help 
it being so. There ought to be stations, however, dotted along 
the coast, and all over the interior of the country. This is 
most desirable in connection with observations upon the 
migration of birds. Most interesting information upon this 
subject has been collected within recent years, and with amaze- 
ment we have learned that the breeding-places of our gralla- 
torial summer visitors are to be found among the tundras of 
Siberia, within the Arctic Circle. The migration of birds has 
not received so much attention in this country as it has done in 
the United Kingdom since the days of Gilbert White, and in 
America since Alex. Wilson marked the flight of the enormous 
flocks of pigeons. Twice in the year we have literally flying 
visits of Snipe, Sandpipers, Godwits, and other less known 
waders. Once in a while, too, one catches glimpses of the 
Great Swift, hawking for a time low over the coastal scrub, 
and then disappearing high up in the empyrean. The con- 
tinental, as well as the extra-continental, migration of birds 
calls for careful observation. Their movements are seen to be 
due to changing physical conditions in their usual habitats 
affecting supplies of food. Is it to similar conditions that the 
great north and south migrations of birds in Europe and 
America are to be traced ? 
The establishment of stations would be highly conducive to the 
collection of information. Persons who found a strange bird 
would know where to send it for identification, and in this climate 
the more stations we have the better. Birds sent to Rockhampton 
from western downs country, even when carried by rail, are 
rather high on arrival. Members of the Union having or taking 
occasion to travel would find at each station someone able to give 
information about the birds of the district, and where particular 
species might be found. There are few pleasures more enjoy- 
able than an interchange of ideas upon a subject in which the 
persons concerned are enthusiastically interested. When it has 
