Weihaiwei, Aug. 22—The beginning of the autumn migration is becoming more noticeable every day: the first batches of snipe have already passed through; swallows are beginning to gather together on the roadside wires; odd birds such as hoopoe, woodcock and dove, give daily surprises in the garden; while the sudden appearance of birds of prey such as merlin and sparrow-hawk indicate that the pirates of the air are following up the smaller birds, warblers, flycatchers, etc., as they commence their perilous journey southward. All these signs and portents make me wonder if the birds here follow the same rules as they do in Europe where the order of migration is recorded by the netting and shooting of birds on small islands. We know from observation in Shanghai that in the spring (northward) migration the males often come first to be followed by the females—(this is especially obvious in the case of the Orioles)—but-it is not so easy to follow the order of the autumn migration at an "intermediate" port like this. According to European standards the southbound order should be (1) odd, unmated birds, cripples, or birds with nests destroyed too late to start again (2) birds of the year in first full plumage—birds which have never migrated before! (3) Adult birds (parents of the year)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.