424 Mr. J. H. Gurney on the Effect of Westerly 



Avind a bird cannot fly its fastest ; its flight is, on the 

 contrary, often somewhat listless, and locomotion probably 

 becomes laborious. It follows that it is easier for a bird 

 to make headway where there is some slight opposition — to 

 fly against a gentle wind rather than with it. The truth of 

 this hypothesis has not been recognized by many writers, 

 bnt it may be especially tested on the coast of Norfolk. 

 This juts out into the North Sea like a great roiuided 

 peninsula, and just in the middle of the bend lies the little 

 town of Cromer, where, or in its neighbourhood, most of the 

 following observations have been made. From its position 

 Cromer is peculiarly adapted for watching the direction and 

 effect of wind and all the autumnal migratory movements of 

 the lower-flying birds, so many of which come in from the sea 

 or shoot down from the clouds, but in either case make land 

 hereabouts. 



Readers of the veteran HerrGiitke's 'Heligoland,' recently 

 translated into English and edited by Mr. Harvie-Brown, 

 will observe the importance which is attached at that orni- 

 thological observatory by the a»ithor to wind in its bearing 

 on migration, especially in the 5th chapter, " On Meteoro- 

 logical Conditions which influence Migration.'^ He sums 

 up the result of continued personal observation by saying : — 

 " Whereas birds appear in great number when the wind 

 is in a particular direction, they are scarcely seen at all 

 when it is in some other quarter " (p. 74) . The particular 

 direction which suits Heligoland may not by any means be 

 the one which brings them to Norfolk. The number of 

 remarkable migrations to Norfolk and the east coast of 

 England generally, which have had no simultaneous coun- 

 terpart in Heligoland, is very large indeed ; therefore 

 there is not that similarity between the two places which 

 some have supposed. In the same way there have 

 been many migrations to Heligoland which could not be 

 correlated with any in England. For instance in October 

 1870 there were thousands of the Great Tit {Parus major) 

 in Heligoland; in 1874 enormous numbers of Shore-Larks 

 {Otocor/js alpcstris) ; in 1876 tens of thousands of Sky-Larks 



