176 
Recent Literature. 
British ornithologists, have set themselves seriously at work in the matter 
of collecting exact data respecting the movements of birds during their 
migrations along the coast of Great Britain. Last year printed forms of 
inquiry and letters of instruction were sent to twenty-six light-liouses on 
the east coast of Scotland, and returns were received respecting the 
autumnal migration from thirteen ; to thirty-seven on the east coast of 
England, from which returns were received for twenty-five; to thirty-four 
on the west coast of Scotland, twenty-four of which sent returns ; in all 
returns were received from sixty-two stations out of a total of ninety-seven, 
Such encouraging co-operation gives a hopeful outlook for the further 
prosecution of the work. Excluding in each case the Natatores, the re- 
ports from the east coast of Scotland relate to about 28 species ; those 
from the east coast of England to about 32, and those from the west coast 
of Scotland to about 30. The information relating to each species is con- 
nectedly presented for each of the three areas under the name of the species 
observed, these special reports being followed by a general discussion of 
the results. Observations made at other points are incidentally incorpo- 
rated, including Herr Gatke’s report from Heligoland. The general drift 
of the returns indicates a rather unusual scarcity of birds during the au- 
tumnal migration of 1879 at many of the stations in question, and the 
results altogether throw very little light, as would be naturally expected 
by the observations of a single season (the first, let us hope, of a long 
seiies), upon the direction and causes of movement. They tend, how- 
ever, to show what species most frequently come in contact with the light- 
stations, and under what conditions this occurs, and also the times of 
passage. It appears that the smaller land-birds are the most frequent 
sufferers, prominent among which are the Thrushes ; and that their visits 
are made almost invariably during heavy storms, or in thick, foggy, or hazy 
weather. As in the case of returns received by Mr. Deane, and reported 
upon in the earlier pages of this number of the Bulletin, the inability of the 
reporters always to identify the species seen, detracts in some degree from 
the value of their reports. 
While we are perhaps a little wiser than were the ancients in respect to 
the causes of migration and the routes pursued by birds, the subject is 
admittedly still involved to a great degree in mystery, and we can scarcely 
expect much advance in our knowledge of the subject till trained observers 
bring to bear upon it their united action, or until the records already 
accumulated by such observers are brought together for comparison and 
elaboration. We have in this country, for example, scores of well-trained 
observers, stationed over a great breadth of territory, who every year note 
carefully and in detail the arrival and departure of the birds at their 
respective localities ; but till these records are brought together, compared 
with each other, and collated with the coincident meteorological phenom- 
ena (taking this expression in its widest sense), can they yield any very 
important results. If an ornithological bureau could be established 
