igii. Barrington.— i?7/5// of Birds 07i March 2qth-2f)th. 105 



thousands of records collected during thirty years as to the 

 direction of flight.^ The paucity of specimens sent at the 

 season of departure corroborates this. Why should the Jack 

 Snipe, Dunlin, and Purple Sandpiper strike on the South 

 coast of Ireland in spring ? For they cannot be southward 

 bound ! Then, the Snow Bunting and the Brambling, which 

 do not breed in Ireland, are killed striking long after those 

 which have wintered with us have left. But the most 

 convincing reason of all is the commonsense argument, 

 why should birds select a misty night with fog for leaving 

 Ireland ? and why should the}^ be found exhausted at 

 lighthouses and lightships, on shore, or a few miles from 

 shore ?• 



Birds, like human beings, do not start on a journey 

 under unfavourable conditions, if it can be avoided. On 

 the contrary, they refrain from doing so, but they cannot 

 tell, any more than we can, the meteorological conditions 

 they are likely to meet with after a flight of 60 or 100 miles 

 acros the sea. 



If the birds were leaving Ireland on March 29th, why 

 is it they were not seen in Cork, Limerick, Dundalk, or 

 Belfast ? Why were the Starlings in these neighbourhoods 

 quiescent ? 



A correspondent on the River Lee writes : — " No rush of 

 birds was observed in this locality." Mr. R. W. Longfield 

 says : — " No abnormal flight of birds was observed in the 

 Bandon River or thereabouts." Mr. Kelly, postmaster at 

 Youghal, says : — " No one has observed an inrush of birds 

 on March 29th." 



Surely portion of the Shannon valley would have been 

 the natural route of Starlings from West of Ireland ! And yet 

 from Carrick -on -Shannon to Limerick, there is no report 

 of any migration. Wherever the direction of flight is 

 given it is totally at variance with the suggestion that the 

 birds were departing. 



Mr. Griffin says, between 4 and 5 in the morning they 

 appeared like a cloud, which covered several miles, and flew 

 in a N.E. direction from Waterford. 



1 See " The Migration of Birds as observed at Light-houses and Light- 

 ships." London tt Dublin, 1910. 



A3 



