228 STUDIES IN BIRD-MIGRATION 



off the east coast of Kent, flying from the south-east 

 to north-west — i.e., from the northernmost part of 

 France across the Straits of Dover to Kent. 



Autumn Immigration fro7n NoiHhern Europe. — 

 Great numbers of Skylarks, which summer in Scandi- 

 navia,^ seek our shores in autumn for the purpose of 

 passing the winter with us. The date of the arrival of 

 these northern birds is remarkably constant — namely, in 

 the first week of October — when the birds appear in 

 Shetland, Orkney, on the east coast of Scotland and 

 north-east coast of England, during the night or early 

 in the morning, in company with Thrushes, Redwings, 

 Blackbirds, Ring-Ouzels, Goldcrests, Chaffinches, Bramb- 

 lings, Redbreasts, Starlings, and other species. These 

 arrivals continue at intervals during the month, and 

 the Skylark participates largely in those remarkable 

 movements which characterize October's latter days. 

 These vast outpourings seem to exhaust the emigra- 

 tion from Northern Europe, for it is doubtful if any 

 considerable arrival takes place in November even in 

 its earliest days. Thus the autumnal immigration 

 from the north, vast as it is, is compressed, as it were, 

 into the period of some four weeks. The majority 

 of the northern Skylarks disperse themselves over our 

 islands (including the Hebrides, the Shetlands and 

 Orkneys), and replace those home-bred birds which 

 have quitted their summer haunts. A great many 

 seek Ireland by direct passage from south-west Scot- 

 land ; others, perhaps, by way of the Isle of Man, 

 or from the Welsh coast to the shores of co. Dublin 



^ Professor CoUett says {Oversigt af Christiania Omegns ornithologiske 

 Fauna, p. 128) that Alauda arvensis is seldom seen in the Christiania 

 district after the middle of October. 



