THE MIGRATIONS OF THE SWALLOW 191 



and 4th May 1887, hundreds of birds, Swallows, and 

 Wheatears, in company (as testified by the wings of the 

 victims) with Reed-Warblers, Whitethroats, Wood- and 

 Willow- Warblers, and Redstarts, were killed at the 

 lighthouse. They also appeared at this same station 

 during the early hours of 12th April 1902, along with 

 many other species, and some were again killed against 

 the lantern. Generally, however, few Swallows meet 

 with disaster during their spring journeys, a very small 

 number strikino- the lanterns, while fewer still seem to 

 suffer from exhaustion. 



Spring Passage to Northern Europe. — This move- 

 ment of Swallows along our coast-line for their boreal 

 homes, does not set in till the last days of April or early 

 May, reaches its maximum about the middle of May, 

 and may be prolonged till near mid June. Many of the 

 earlier of these transient migrants reach our south coast 

 in company with the Swallows that come to summer 

 with us, but those which pour in during the latter half 

 of May or in June are mostly travellers on their way 

 to Scandinavia.^ The main stream is confined to our 

 eastern coast, and the North Sea is crossed by the 

 main body of the migrants ere the northern limit of 

 the mainland is reached, for only a comparatively small 

 number seem to take Orkney or Shetland on their way 

 to Northern Europe. A few Swallows yearly visit the 

 Hebrides, including the remote Flannan Islands and St 

 Kilda, during the last three weeks of May and early 

 June, and it is possibly these birds, or some of them, 



1 According to the information of Professor Collett, the Swallow is 

 seldom observed in Norway in April. In the first week of May examples 

 appear singly, about the middle of that month more arrive, and between the 

 20th and 25th all, perhaps, have come. 



