THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE NIGHTINGALE.
[To TUB EDITOR or TIM STIICTAToR:1 have read the article in your paper entitled "The Geography of the Nightingale" (Spectator, May 2nd) with the greatest interest. There is a point which especially strikes me with regard to Sir John Sinclair's experiment. Could the failure of the nightingales to return have anything to do with the fact that they were all brought up by non-migratory parents P Of course the failure of one experiment cannot prove anything, but one cannot help wondering whether the result might have been different had the eggs been put into the nests of other migratory birds—such as garden warblers or whitethroats. It opens up a vast field for experiment, as to whether the migratory habit is entirely instinct born in each young bird, or whether the old birds help and lead the young when it is time for the journey to be made. There is also another and very baffling possibility. If the migratory habit is entirely instinct born in each bird, might it not lead the young birds back to the spot where their parents lived and laid the eggs—. instead of to the home of their foster-parents P—I am, Sir, eze.
9 Balfour Gardens, Forest Bow. L. IL PARSONS.
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