Sept. 15.—Certain people love to go round asking trick questions to which they alone know the answer, and one of these questions has for many years been, "what is the commonest bird in the world?" Old memories were revived the other day when I read a little article.on this subject, because its writer dared to contest (and I have no doubt quite correctly) the answer given by the great biologist Darwin. The interesting point about this problem is that almost everybo: to whom the question is posed must answer "the house sparrow"; or, if the person happened to be a bird observer in England, he might add. "or possibly the starling"; but the correct answer must be that the commonest bird in the world is some kind ofesea bird, because of the immense spaces open to such creatures, and the fact that certain breeding-grounds are known to have populations of tens (or—?—hundreds) of millions: and the next most interesting point about this question is that you may safely bet the average "question" that he or she knows nothing about the first three "commonest birds." Now for a few facts. Darwin's guess was the fulmar petrel, but James Fisher (probably the greatest living authority of the younger generation) says:—
"Darwin may have got his idea from the abundance of the fulmar at sea in the North Atlantic. Certainly it is one of the commonest birds in that part of the ocean, but I suggest that the little auk....runs the fulmar fairly close if it does not actually beat it."
Finally Mr. Fisher, as a result of all hi: researches, says he thinks that "Wilson's Petrel which seems to have the freedom of the seas from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean, must be the commonest bird. Please note that the three candidates are, Fulmer Petrel, Little Auk and Wilson's Petrel; and how many people know anything about any of them? The fact that I have, for more years than I care to count, suppressed a natural desire to ask such questions As the above, may perhaps be counted in my favour when I go up for my Final Examination.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.