138 The hish Naturalist August, 



specimens, and for a skulking species this is no criterion 

 of the numbers migrating which escaped notice. I shall now 

 describe briefly the visit of each of the four birds to the 

 lantern and the manner in which they were collected, 

 pointing out also what an easy matter it was, especially 

 under certain adverse meteorological conditions, to overlook 

 the bird completely. 



The first time during its vernal migration that I observed 

 this warbler was Friday, April 12th, 1912. When I ascended 

 to the balcony at 9 o'clock p.m., I found the night was dark 

 and cloudy, but overhead some stars were visible up to 



10 p.m. After that time the stars grew dim, the night grew 

 blacker, and migrants began to appear in the rays of the 

 lantern. Starlings appeared at 10.15 ; Wheatears and 

 warblers (the latter larger than Willow -Warblers) at 



11 o'clock. The warblers, though fairly numerous in the 

 rays, very seldom came up to the lantern, and when they 

 did so, they, with quivering wings, barely touched the glass, 

 most of them soaring over the dome. Their flight, as it 

 appeared in the path of illumination, was relatively slow 

 and somewhat deliberate, the birds often poising in the air, 

 especially when they drew close to the glass. I was quite 

 unable to make a differential diagnosis of the species to 

 which they belonged, all I could say with conviction was that 

 they were neither Willow- Warblers nor Chiff chaffs, on whose 

 aerial movements at the lantern I had already made con- 

 siderable observations. I was anxious to secure a few speci- 

 mens but as the birds neither struck the lantern nor even 

 fluttered on the glass, offering (in the latter case) an oppor- 

 tunity of being "picked off", I gave up the idea of col- 

 lecting them, and contented myself in watching their 

 beautiful movements as they scintillated in the brilliant 

 beams. I next conceived the idea of starting a series of 

 searches for this skulking species with my hand flash-lamp, 

 examining every nook and recess on the balcony and about 

 the framework of the lantern. After many perambula- 

 tions I descried a little bird crouching on a hand-ring 

 belonging to a sash of one of the panes of glass of the lantern. 

 I looked at the bird for some minutes and noticed that as 



