1901. Usshkr. — The Migration of Birds, % 



was pointed out by Mr. Moffat ; namely, that on the moonlight 

 nights much fewer birds are attracted by the lighthouses, but 

 that within a week of new moon the greatest numbers thus 

 fall victims in the dark. It will therefore require extended 

 observations to embrace years when the lunar phases are 

 similar about the same dates. 



But taking the results arrived at since 1882, Mr. Barrington 

 gives a series of judiciously drawn tables and figures for the 

 times of the migration of each species. By these he shows, in 

 the case of the commoner birds, the months and parts of 

 months when the maximum immigration takes place, and it 

 thence appears that the migrants arrive in the greatest num- 

 bers later (and sometimes a good deal later), than the dates 

 when their first appearance is wont to be noticed in the 

 country. 



It has been established by this whole enquiry that many species 

 called resident or sedentary come to Ireland in great hosts when 

 the cold season commences, and many birds which were not 

 suspected to quit the land have been shown to migrate in 

 considerable numbers, as the Redbreast, the Rook, and the 

 Water-Rail ; while others are not found to migrate — for instance, 

 the Creeper, Bullfinch, and Jay, the presumption being strong 

 against these. 



Concerning Thrushes, Blackbirds, Larks, Chaffinches, Star- 

 lings, and several other species, it is found that after the 

 numbers that are killed striking have greatly diminished 

 during mid-winter, there is a distinct increase of them in 

 February or March. Such cases might be supposed to be those 

 of departing birds which had wintered in the country; 

 but one of Mr. Barrington's most remarkable announcements 

 is that they are more probably the arrivals of a spring immi- 

 gration ; that these birds may be coming at that season to breed 

 in Ireland, or further north, and that birds are very seldom 

 seen to depart at any season. For this conclusion he gives 

 several reasons ; among the rest, the land-birds seen by day- 

 light are, except in a very few cases, making for the Irish 

 shores. Then again, the birds seen at the season at which they 

 might be expected to emigrate are frequently in an exhausted 

 or dying state, as though they had just crossed the sea by a long 

 flight. The numbers of both summer and winter visitors 

 recorded from light-stations are comparatively small at their 



