14
THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.
insectivorous bird should follow its food-supply to southern climes,
pushing its fellows onwards in the struggle for existence, is plausible ;
but if there is sufficient therewith to be content, why does it again
return, and why does it journey so far when enough and to spare
can be found in a much shorter range, without braving the trials and
hardships known to be incident to so perilous a journey as is often
undertaken. Repulsion therefrom by tropical rains is not a tenable
theory ; neither to my mind is the necessity for a distinct breeding
area. This cannot affect the Cuckoo and Nightjar. The Martin
and Sand Martin for instance are known to breed from the Shet-
lands to North Africa, Egypt, and Palestine, with probably a wider
range ; the Sand Martin also breeds up to the Arctic Circle, in
Alaska and Canada. It still seems doubtful, too, whether the
Nightingale, Wryneck, Red-backed Shrike, Sand Martin, &c., are
not double-brooded, nesting in what we term their winter quarters.
We know that many birds moult twice a year.
The incidents of migration are interesting. Whether the route
taken is constant, as appears probable ; whether the return journey
is along the same line of flight, in some birds (e.g., Grey Phalarope)
we know it is not; what different species travel in company ; which
species congregate in flocks, and which migrate singly or in pairs ;
whether any species are assisted by others ;24 the range of individual
races; whether the sexes or young travel separately, and if so, which
take precedence and so on. So is the influence of wind and
weather—a side, if not a head, wind is almost a necessity, and the
presence of the moon ; also the mode of flight, so marked in some
24 A most fascinating enquiry. When the great annual migration of Storks takes place in the
Archipelago, those young ones which are not able to fly are placed on the backs of the old birds
( Jesses "Scenes and Tales of Country Life," p. 367). Small birds (especially Wagtails) are sup-
posed to be carried by Cranes across the Mediterranean (Dr. Van Lennep's "Bible Customs in
Bible Lands," quoted in Zool., 1881, p. 260). North American Indians assert that certain
finches are carried on the backs of the Canada Goose (see Zool., 1882, p. 72, quotation from
"Nature"). Gold-crested Wrens, that arrived on our east coast in the autumn of 1882 in thou-
sands, were seen in two instances on the back of a Short-eared Owl, by Mr. Wilson, foreman of
the South Gare Breakwater, at the mouth of the Tees (Zool., 1802, p. 73). It is curious that the
Woodcock, Short-eared Owl, and Gold-crested Wren are inseparably connected in their migra-
tions. The Woodcock is figured carrying its young, in the "Zoologist" for November, 1870.
The Great Crested Grebe with a young one on its back, is figured in the "Badminton Library" ;
"Shooting: Moor and Marsh," p. 199. On July 4th, 1863, in the Firth of Forth an Eider
Duck was observed scudding along through a tolerably heavy sea, with al! her little family
perched snugly on her back ("Field," July 18th, 1863, p. 75). Two instances of Snipe carrying
their young are given in the "Field" for May 30th, 1874, p. 525, and when Wild-fowl and Moor-
hens nest in trees away from water, as is frequently their wont, carrying becomes a matter of
necessity. The "complete mistake" recorded in Trans. E. F. C. i. 67-9 must have been excep-
tional. In the "Birds of Sherwood Forest" (p. 220), Mr. Sterland records how Mr. Mansell of
Thoresby saw a Wild Duck convey her thirteen young from an ivy-clothed ash. in which she
had nested, to the bank of the stream, one by one, in her bill. The Rev. J. C. Atkinson records
how a Lapp clergyman, who saw a Golden-eye conveying its young from the nest to the water,
"made out that the young bird was held under the bill, but supported by the neck of the parent"
("British Birds' Eggs and Nests, p. 177). Mr. Theodore Walker (Zool., 1871, p. 2427) says that
he has seen the Razorbill, seizing its young by the back of the neck, convey them to the sea,
where, by repeatedly carrying them under water, it teaches them to dive.