166 STUDIES LN BIRD-IVIIGRATION 



congregate on the south coast of England. Numbers 

 are known to quit Ireland when the Sister Isle is included 

 in the sphere of an arctic winter. One of the features of 

 such great retreats before the storm — before heavy 

 snow in particular — is the rush westwards, along the 

 south coast of England and its vicinity, of hordes of 

 Skylarks and Starlings, accompanied by numbers of 

 Song - Thrushes, Redwings, Fieldfares, Blackbirds, 

 Linnets, Lapwings, and doubtless other species. Some- 

 times these rushes last for several days, and the number 

 of Skylarks observed is simply astounding, and pro- 

 bably includes immigrants of this, and of the other 

 species named, from Western Central Europe, which 

 have arrived on the south-east coast of England after 

 an east-to-west passage across the North Sea. 



The birds evicted from Great Britain enter Ireland 

 at various points. Those leaving Scotland arrive on 

 the north-east coast ; those from Wales on the east 

 coast ; while those arriving from south-western England 

 (some of them after traversing the south coast) enter the 

 country at its south-east angle, after a passage across 

 St George's Channel — the route chiefly used by the 

 spring, and many of the autumn, visitors to the Sister 

 Isle. 



In Ireland there are many local winter movements 

 due to the pressure of weather, and then the west coast 

 is much visited, the south-western counties of Cork and 

 Kerry especially being resorted to. Winter emigration 

 must, however, be regarded as an exceptional phenomenon 

 in Ireland, for some section or another of its area usually 

 affords an asylum in all save the severest of seasons. 



During the severe weather of January 1881, when 

 as many as 25 of frost were registered in the west of 



