OTES 



THE RECENT " REMARKABLE MIGRATION 



PHENOMENA." 



It is not often that the phenomena of migration are brought so 

 forcibly before the general pubhc as they have been within the 

 last few weeks, by the wholesale destruction that occurred on 

 the night of March 29-30th, 1911, in the south-east of Ireland. 

 The daily Press duly chronicled the event, and, as might be 

 expected, the story lost nothing by repetition : and all sorts of 

 theories, more or less fanciful, were suggested as the cause. 

 The most trustworthy account would seem to be that which 

 appeared in the Irish Times for March 31st, and, stripped of its 

 journalistic embellishments, is shortly as follows : From the 

 night of March 26-27th to that of the 29-30th, Curlews and 

 Starlings were heard passing over the town of Carlow ; on the 

 latter night Curlews in " immense flocks " were heard passing 

 .■[apparently] to the north-east from 10 p.m. till after mid- 

 night ; while during the same period some hundreds of other 

 birds were also passing over, and numbers of them were killed 

 •against telegraph wires, etc., being found dead in the morning 

 in the streets, Starlings, Redwings, and Thrushes being identi- 

 fied. Between the same hours on the same night, similar 

 ■occurrences took place at New Ross (co. Wexford) and Kil- 

 kenny, Starhngs being specifically mentioned at the first 

 locality, and Curle\\s, Thrushes, Blackbirds, and " Sparrows " 

 at the second. 



To those who are in any way familiar with the subject of 

 migration, and have taken the trouble to study the Reports 

 ■of the Migration Committees of the British Association and the 

 British Ornithologists' Club, there is no need to conjure 

 up fanciful theories to account for this " remarkable phe- 

 nomenon," or, as even the Field heads it " Remarkable //iflux 

 of Birds in Ireland." The species concerned are all well- 

 known autumn-migrants to, and winter-residents in, Ireland ; 

 the localities concerned all lie within a circle w ith a radius of 

 sixteen miles in the south-east corner of Ireland, and, therefore, 

 well within the known migration-route of these birds. The 

 date is well within the normal period of the spring- migration 

 of these species, when they might be expected to leave Ireland 

 in a more or less easterly direction. Moreover, the moon was 

 in her dark phase, and the night was therefore dark, and in 



