INTRODUCTION. 
vu 
Ocean by those coining from the north may occupy a sliort nlglit*. It is interesting to note tliat some of 
onr migrants effect the passage to onr shores during the night, and others by day : as a rule, it is the small 
sylvan birds which come at the former time, as is evidenced by numbers being found at the base of the 
various lighted beacons of our southern and south-eastern coasts, against which, attracted by the light, they 
have flown and killed themselves ; the Swallows, the Cuckoo, and the Turtle Dove, on the other hand, wing 
their way across in broad day-light. 
Besides the regular migration of certain species, a remarkable shifting of locality occurs with others, not 
only in our own, but in many other parts of the world, the cause of which is totally unknown. Starlings 
are now very abundant in Cornwall, and Missel-Tb rushes in Scotland — in which they were formerly not to 
be seen. Such Interchanges of locality are doubtless occasionally due to alterations in the face of the 
country : but this was not the cause in the case of Cornwall ; for no county can have undergone less 
alteration ; as it was in the days of Julius Caesar, so it is now, unless we except the operations of mining, 
which naturally only affect the surface of a district to a small extent. The sudden appearance of Pallas’s 
Sandgrouse (^Sijrrhaptes paradoxus) in our islands and on various parts of the Continent, in 1859-60, must 
be in the recollection of every one. This irruption of a strange bird from the distant country of Siberia, 
perhajis from China, was very astonishing ; and it well illustrates my meaning, which may be further 
exemplified by the mention of two similar occurrences in Australia. In the year 1839 the whole of the 
southern and eastern portion bf that country was suddenly visited by millions of the little Grass-Parrakeet 
(^Mclopsittacus undidatus) \ and a year or two later swarms of a species of Water-hen 
spread themselv^es like a cloud over the Swan-River district, destroying fields of corn and garden-produce 
and committing ravages unheard of before ; and both these species have kept their hold until the present 
day, but of course in much smaller numbers. Although not necessarily bearing upon the preceding 
* As an evidence that birds are capable of taking very long flights with apparent ease, I may quote a letter to ‘ The Times ’ of 
June 27, 1872, which further shows that the electric telegraph has not wholly deprived us of the usefulness of the Carrier Pigeon. 
The communication alluded to runs as follows : — 
“ Sib, — ^The promoters of the system of electric telegraphy insist on its immense superiority over the older plan of pigeon- 
despatches. How far these pretensions are founded on facts is shown by the results of the pigeon-race to Brussels, which started 
from the Crystal Palace on Thursday last, when 72 birds were flown at noon. Immediately on their departure I telegraphed to the 
secretary of the society whose members had forwarded the birds, announcing their departure. The first birds arrived in Brussels at 
5.28 P.M., and the telegram at 5.30 p.m. 
“Another example, and I have done. During the Crimean War the intelligence was conveyed to Colombo, Ceylon, 70 miles 
north of Point de Galle, where the ships to India landed their despatches ; and the salute fired on the news of the fall of Sebastopol 
resulted from information brought by them. The electric telegraph was established, and the pigeon-post abolished. I have recently 
been requested to restock Colombo with Belgian “ voyageurs,” as the information brought by the electric wire is neither so speedy 
nor so correct as that conveyed by the burds. The Prussians, wise in their generation, have taken lessons from the Parisians, and 
established pigeon-posts in Metz and their other fortified towns. In the event of a war in which we may be engaged, what would 
be the value of birds that would convey messages to Jersey, Guernsey, &c. when the telegraphic wires had been cut by the enemy ! 
W. B. TEGETMEIER.” 
