James Edmund Fotheringham Harting

“ In conclusion, I need only say that my best efforts shall be devoted to the advancement of the study which all zoologists have at heart, and, with the assistance of my contributors, I doubt not that that advancement will be real. ”

“ Birds of North America rarely, if ever, reach England from Greenland by direct spontaneous migration by way of Iceland, as shown by the fact that only three of the American birds occurring in Greenland are found in Iceland, and that few of the American species observed in Europe are found in Greenland at all. Most specimens of American birds recorded as found in Europe were taken in England (about fifty out of sixty-nine) , some of them in Heligoland, very few on the Continent (land-birds in only five instances) . ”

“ The results no one can attempt to predict; but it is clearly the duty, as it must be the desire, of all zoologists and well-wishers to Zoology to aid this rapid advance. I would, therefore, with the utmost respect to my supporters, earnestly request them in every case to consider beforehand whether the contributions they may be intending to forward to this journal are such as will promote the progress of the study, and to satisfy themselves that this is so ere they despatch their communications. ”

“ There exists amongst all contributors to Natural-History journals an unconscious but more or less strong tendency (sometimes most strongly shown in the best writers) to make the local and personal part of their communications of greater importance than it deserves. ”

“ Many such cases are already on record, and although this particular species is not known with certainty to have occurred here before, it has been met with on more than one occasion on the European continent, and, from its migratory habits, is just one of those birds which one would naturally expect now and then to arrive.
To account for the appearance of North American birds in this country is not so easy. ”