234 STUDIES IN BIRD-MIGRATION 



reappear along with the Skylarks are mostly those 

 which have before been mentioned in association with 

 them — Thrushes, Blackbirds, Mistle-Thrushes, Red- 

 breasts, Meadow- Pipits, Starlings, Lapwings, and so 

 forth. During March the movements of the immigrants 

 become merged into those of the birds of passage strictly 

 so called ; and arrivals on the south coast usually cease 

 in the first week of April. In Ireland, during the 

 first days of the month (April) and occasionally to 

 its third week. Skylarks continue to arrive in company 

 with Wheatears and other early summer birds. The 

 return movement to the Hebrides corresponds with 

 that to the mainland, but, as in Ireland, the immi- 

 gration is prolonged into April. In Shetland the 

 spring arrival of the native birds begins in the early 

 days of March, in some seasons in the last days of 

 February. 



The immigrants reach the south coast of England, 

 sometimes in vast numbers, during the earliest hours of 

 the morning; but in the south-east of Ireland, the chief 

 point of arrival in that country, they are usually 

 observed later in the day — in the Hebrides mainly at 

 night. 



Spring Emigration from the British Isles to Centi'al 

 Europe. — The return (west to east) movement from 

 south-eastern England across the North Sea comes 

 very little under observation compared with the in- 

 flowing streams of the preceding autumn, and that this 

 should be so is easily explained. In the first place, the 

 numbers of travellers, owing to the waste of winter, 

 have been much thinned ; and secondly, like most other 

 important emigratory movements, this one takes place 

 chiefly at night, and so for the most part escapes notice, 



