Abstract
THIS book has been long expected, and it is certainly one worth waiting for. The author remarks “that no country in the world is more favourably situated than our own for witnessing the movements of migratory birds; that there is none in which the many phases of the phenomenon are of a more varied nature; and none in which the subject has received greater attention”. To which we venture to add that no one has made so much use of these opportunities as Mr. Eagle Clarke has done, and that no contribution to the subject compares in importance with the work which is summarised in the book before us. It is, a striking fact that although the book deals almost wholly with the author's own work, it has a completeness and scope far superior to that of any other book on migration. It represents the spare-time industry of a quarter of a century, a remarkable persistence of observation under difficult conditions on lighthouses, lightships, and lone islands of the sea, a resolute courage in facing and accomplishing the dreary task of analysing the immense masses of data provided by the British Association Committee, and a remarkable restraint in dealing with a fascinating: subject which has repeatedly proved itself fatally provoca-tive of romantic treatment. It is scarcely necessary to say that the author has given us from time to time instal-ments of his results, but here we have a revised and unified presentation of the whole— an achievement calling for the warmest congratulation.
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References
Studies in Bird Migration. By William Eagle Clarke .: Vol. i:, pp. xvi + 323. Vol. ii., pp. vii + 346 + 25 plates. (London: Gurney and Jackson: Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1912.) Price 18s. net, 2 vols.
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Bird-Migration. 1 . Nature 90, 104–106 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/090104a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/090104a0