2 64 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



the northern districts will send thousands of Larks, 

 Snow Buntings, Finches, Crows, and Starhngs 

 drifting along the coasts towards the south. At 

 the Galloper Light-vessel, stationed off the mouth 

 of the Thames, we have a very interesting instance 

 of this Nomadic Migration, taken from scores of 

 similar instances. On the nights of January 21st 

 to 23rd, 1885, no less than 226 birds were killed, 

 all refugees from a severe spell of winter in more 

 northern districts. We have many instances where 

 our eastern coast districts have swarmed with Snow 

 Buntings and other hard-billed birds, and of spas- 

 modic arrivals of others from the continent during 

 exceptionally hard weather, which will, as any 

 observer may remark, clear a district of birds very 

 quickly for the time. In fact, all the winter 

 through Nomadic Migration is in progress on no 

 uncertain scale. Birds are constantly passing to 

 and fro, now sparingly, now in bewildering numbers ; 

 from every point the same story comes, proving 

 absolutely that at least some species are actually in 

 a constant state of passage through every month of 

 the twelve. In Larks and Starlings this fact is 

 specially noticeable. Some birds are certainly more 

 highly susceptible to a change of weather than 

 others, especially those that obtain their food from 

 the ground. Lapwings, Larks,^ and Snow Bunt- 



1 It may be for this reason that Larks always prefer a 

 winter haunt on the highest ground in the district they frequent, 

 where a coming change of temperature is probably more readily 

 and quickly detected than in the valleys. My invariable ex- 



