CHAPTER XVII 



A MONTH ON THE EDDYSTONE I A STUDY IN EMIGRATION, 

 AND OF THE CROSS - CHANNEL MOVEMENTS DURING 

 AUTUMN AND SPRING. 



Why the Eddystone ? It is true that no other light- 

 house in any country, or of any time, has attained to 

 the same degree of celebrity as the series of beacons 

 which since the year 1699 have stood upon those lonely 

 Cornish rocks ; but the halo of these romantic associations 

 had nothing whatever to do with my selection of that 

 station for the purpose of my bird-watching. I went 

 there because it fulfilled beyond all others the conditions 

 required for the prosecution of the special investigations 

 I was wishful to carry out. During the preparation of 

 the Reports submitted by me to the British Association 

 on " Bird- Migration in Great Britain and Ireland," I 

 was much impressed with the singularly deficient state of 

 our knowledge relating to the conditions under which 

 one of the most important and interesting phases of the 

 phenomenon was performed — namely, that of emigra- 

 tion. That this should be the case is not difficult to 

 realise when it is remembered that emigration is the 

 movement of all others which is performed under 

 conditions of obscurity, since it is chiefly undertaken 

 during the hours of darkness, and consequently entirely 



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