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Perhaps the most interesting facts in connection 

 with the migration flight of birds are, the vast heights 

 at which they often travel, the velocity with which 

 they fly, and the enormons distances which they cover. 

 On the night of the 19th October, 1880, Professor 

 Scott of Princeton University,while looking through an 

 astronomical telescope, observed flocks of small land- 

 birds pass across the face of the moon, while on their 

 Continental migration, at an altitude varying from one 

 to two miles, Mr. F. M. Chapman, on the evening of 

 3rd September, 1887, saw 262 birds passing across the 

 moon's disc, some of which were flying at a height of 

 15,100 feet, or nearl}' three miles.*' The late Herr 

 Gatke, who spent a long life observing the migration 

 phenomena of Heligoland, was of the opinion that 

 the normal migration flight is carried on at the height 

 of close on four miles. 



In very calm weather, and when a south-easterly 

 wind prevails, the migrants uniformly approach nearer 

 the earth's surface. It is on still dark autumn nights 

 that the great " rushes," as the light-keepers call them, 

 take place at marine stations. Myriads of birds of the 

 most incongruous species. Larks, Starlings, Lapwings, 

 Woodcock, Geese, Curlews, Goldcrests, Robins, and 

 scores of others, whirl and eddy round the light- 

 houses, or dart past with inconceivable swiftness, large 

 numbers dashing themselves against the glasses. 



In regard to the velocity of the migration flight 

 there is some interesting evidence extant. The slow- 

 flying Hooded Crow is said to perform its autumn 

 journey from Germany to our eastern coast at the rate 

 of 108 miles an hour. Gatke tells us f that the Blue- 

 throat (a pretty little bird closely allied to our Nightin- 

 gale^ can cover at a single flight the distance of nearly 



* Professor Newton, Did. of Birds. 

 + Vogelwarte Heligoland. 



