THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.
3
give attention to this far from well-understood subject, concerning
which so many new facts have lately been collected.
The migration of birds has been a phenomenon known from the
earliest ages, and more observed in former times probably than now,
when seasons are wont to be regulated by our almanacks. There
was a time when the agricultural and horticultural operations, and
other outdoor industries were largely determined by observations on
bird movements. Even in these days country people note the
phenomena of nature with great accuracy, frequently inferring change
of weather, &c., from the habits and movements of animals and
birds ; and in so judging they are not often misled. This natural
calendar still exists, and should be noted and checked by all field
naturalists ; the record of such facts is at least interesting for com-
parison of changing seasons and years. The collection of facts and
statistics is more a necessity than that of specimens; but do we all
think so ? I commend this remark to our members, not only to our
ornithologists. The regularly recurring phenomenon of migration
is still a theme of constant remark and wonderment, and the explana-
tion probably nearly as difficult as it was to authors of the greatest
antiquity.
Knowledge has increased and facts have accumulated; these
have served to explode numerous theories, but the subject still awaits
a satisfactory solution. The results of reliable observation have fre-
quently been collected. It was certainly supposed that in this
country our migratory species were known, but their number has
been considerably increased by the nine reports of the Migration
Committee appointed by the British Association. It now seems
probable that few birds remain for the year in the district where they
were born. There are now, as ever, certain birds whose migrations
are noticed above all others. In Mr. Harting's entertaining work,
"Our Summer Migrants," forty-nine species are separately treated of.
The references to the migratory movements of birds by authors
and especially by poets—and it is really a poetic subject—are beyond
computation, and it is not my intention to attempt to collect these,
from Anacreon's welcome to the returning Swallow,4 and the Rhodian
song preserved to us by the Egyptian Athenaeus,5 nor to allude to
the voluminous and wide-spread folk-lore of the phenomenon, dating
back to remote ages and extending to all countries.
4 See Moore's Translation, Ode 24.
5 See Gilbert White's Translation of this carol.