MIGRATION IN THE BRITISH ISIANBS. 



257 



and over all the clifF— hundreds of thousands ; 



by 9 a.m. most of them had passed on again." 



How many of these httle pilgrims fell by the way 



man may never know, but undoubtedly the great 



majority never returned to the land of their birth ! 



The rush of StarUngs and Sky Larks across the 



North Sea in autumn especially is simply incredible. 



For days and days together the Larks may be 



watched coming into England in a scarcely broken 



stream by day, and their warbling cries fill the air 



at night as the great tide still flows on. Here is 



Gatke's description of the migrating Starlings in 



the autumn of 1883. On October 6th, *' in 



astounding flights, thousands upon thousands"; 



1 2th, "considerable numbers of astounding flights, 



both overhead and in distance"; 13th, ''still 



passing, astounding numbers all day"; 26th, 



"ditto, very high"; 27th, "night from 11 p.m. 



myriads " ; 28th, " immense." Correspondingly 



large waves of these birds struck our coasts, and 



might be described in similar terms. 



We might thus go on dealing with species after 

 species in the same manner, but the Hmits of our 

 space forbid. Nevertheless these few intensely 

 interesting facts speak for themselves, vividly and 

 eloquently telling of that great Avian influx across 

 the wild North Sea. It is, however, worthy of 

 remark that in many cases vast waves of migrants 

 breaking over our islands do not touch Heligoland 

 at all, as is proved by the fact of enormous rushes 

 reaching our eastern coast-lines on days and nights 



