26 STUDIES IN BIRD-MIGRATION 



There is another very remarkable fact concerning 

 these visitors to the lights to which I have never seen 

 any allusion made — namely, that the vast majority of 

 them are passerines ! I have seen tens of thousands of 

 migrants around the lanterns of the Eddystone and 

 Kentish Knock stations, and all were passerines except 

 two — namely, a Storm- Petrel and a Kestrel. And yet I 

 have heard waders and other birds passing during these 

 stirring nights at the lantern, though beyond giving 

 tongue they passed by unconcerned and invisible. How 

 are we to account for this ? Why should the Passeres 

 be allured to the light and not the Limicolae ? Can it be 

 because the former — the most specialised of birds — are 

 rendered, by reason of their higher organisation, more 

 susceptible to the mysterious influence of the light ? I 

 merely throw out this suggestion as a possible explana- 

 tion. 



As to the meteorological aspects of the migration 

 phenomena witnessed at the Kentish Knock, not much 

 remains to be said, for frequent allusions have already 

 been made to them when treating of particular move- 

 ments. In dealing with this section of the subject, I 

 have consulted a set of the " Daily Weather Reports," 

 issued by the Meteorological Office, wherein are shown 

 the conditions prevailing over the whole of the western 

 half of Europe. The conditions most favourable for 

 passages across the southern waters of the North Sea 

 prevail when the central area of an anticyclone lies to 

 the east of our islands, when, as already explained (see 

 Vol. I., p. 173), the winds would range from south to east. 



The main weather-influences for investigation were 

 naturally those associated with the east-to-west move- 



