A MONTH ON KENTISH KNOCK LIGHTSHIP 19 



to-west movements were performed during the night as 

 well as the day. I did ascertain beyond a doubt that 

 Rooks, Jackdaws, Lapwings, Ring-Plovers, and a number 

 of wading birds did move in this direction during the 

 night-time, and I think that there is strong presumptive 

 evidence that the great movement on the night of the 

 17th to 1 8th October was chiefly if not wholly from east 

 to west, and I believe that birds from the east were 

 present on several other occasions/ 



The nocturnal passage southwards during the latter 

 part of September has already been alluded to, and but 

 little more remains to be said concerning it. On the 

 night of 1 8th September and during the earliest hours 

 of the 19th, Redstarts, Pied Flycatchers, Thrushes, and 

 an adult male Kestrel were at and around the lantern, 

 along with other species unidentified ; and several 

 Common Sandpipers were heard passing, but did not 

 show themselves. This was probably the commencement 

 of a movement southward which was in full swing all the 

 following day. 



Soon after midnight on 20th September a large 

 party of Skylarks appeared, accompanied by other small 

 passerines. A considerable number struck the lantern 

 and fell into the sea, the wind being moderately strong 

 and the ship riding with her beam to it. 



At 8.45 P.M. on 22nd September a number of Wheat- 



Mt is a very significant fact (one which favours the opinion that many, 

 perhaps most, of these night migrations were from the east westwards), that 

 although I witnessed movements as late in the season as i8th October, yet 

 I never saw a single essentially northern species, such as the Redwing, 

 during the whole of my residence in this lightship. At the Galloper light- 

 ship, east of the Kentish Knock, on 22nd October 1887, Rooks, Starlings, 

 and Larks were at the lantern all night, clearly proving that these east-to- 

 west passages are performed during the hours of darkness. 



