196 The Irish Nahiralist. October, 



to 1899 he received only nine specimens in spring, all in 

 different years (except in 1893, when two specimens were 

 received during the same spring on consecutive nights), has 



, led him to take the view that the bird does not appear " to 

 strike the lantern numerously." Adopting the term 



- " strike " in its broadest sense, as signifying contact of the 

 bird with the glass, whether it hurts itself or not, it is true 

 that Spotted Flycatchers, compared with Wheatears, 

 Willow Warblers, Sedge Warblers, Starlings, Thrushes, and 

 others, do not appear in the rays in such numbers together. 

 On the other hand. Flycatchers are much in evidence when 



c nearing the lantern, and shew a marked tendency to come in 

 with little hesitation, and they hit, as a rule, hard against 

 the glass. In the strict sense of the word they are prone to 

 strike harder and proportionately oftener than some of the 

 species above mentioned. 



The Spotted Flycatcher is a bird, however, which I have 

 found migrating also by day, hence a certain percentage of 

 birds must avoid the lantern altogether. On the whole I 

 would say that the autumn migration of this bird as wit- 

 nessed at the Tuskar light -station, is a dominant and not by 

 any means a desultory feature. Furthermore, if my personal 

 observations, which I may now proceed to record, linked 

 together v/ith Mr. Barrington's records, are typical of a 

 season's emigration, then Mr. Barrington's view that in 



-autumn " there is no well marked flight -line observable as 

 in spring " no longer holds good. 



As mentioned already, the interval between Mr. Barring- 

 ton's July record (July 30th) and my earliest record for 

 August (August 6th) is too short to suggest any other 

 explanation than that at the close of July or beginning of 

 August the Spotted Fl3xatcher begins to move away. But, 

 furthermore, it is noteworthy that on the night of August 

 6th I obtained not only one but two Fl37catchers, and saw 

 many more round the lantern. Emigrating with them were 

 Sedge Warblers, Willow Warblers, Wheatears, Swifts, 

 examples of all of which I collected. Greater Whitethroats 

 were probably also among the gathering, though curiously 

 enough I did not collect any this night. However, in the 

 early morning (4.15 a.m.) of the same date (August 6th) I 

 picked one up dead on the rock. This bird probably struck 



