272 BRITISH BIRDS. 
a moth against a lamp, tried to perch on the wire netting, and was caught 
by the lighthouse man. I should be afraid to hazard a guess at the hundreds 
of thousands that must have passed in a couple of hours; but the stray 
birds which the lighthouse man succeeded in securing amounted to nearly 
300. The scene from the balcony of the lighthouse was equally interest- 
ing ; in every direction birds could be seen flying like a swarm of bees, and 
every few seconds one flew against the glass. All the birds seemed to be 
flying up wind, and it was only on the lee-side of the light that any birds 
were caught. They were nearly all Sky-Larks; but in the heap captured 
there was one Redstart and one Reed-Bunting. ‘The air was filled with 
the warbling cry of the Larks; now and then a Thrush was heard; and 
once a Heron screamed as it passed by. The night was starless and the 
town was invisible, but the island looked lke the suburbs of a gas-lit city, 
being sprinkled over with brilliant lanterns. Many of the Sky-Larks 
alighted on the ground to rest, and allowed the Heligolanders to pass their 
nets over them. About three o’clock in the morning a heavy thunder- 
storm came on, with deluges of rain; a few breaks in the clouds revealed 
the stars, and the migration came to an end, or continued above the range 
of our vision. 
Equally interesting is the arrival of the Larks on our shores, not only on 
the east coast of England, but also on the same coast of Scotland. The 
‘Migration Report’ for 1882 mentions a rush of Sky-Larks at Sumburgh 
Head, on the Shetlands, from the 11th to the 18th of September. On the 
Isle of May, in the Firth of Forth, a “ vast rush” of Larks and other birds 
passed westwards in October ; whilst hundreds are described as being 
drowned in the sea or killed on the balcony of the lighthouse at Bell Rock, 
on the coast of the mainland, on the night of the 12th of October. Enor- 
mous numbers are reported as arriving at twenty-nine stations in various 
parts of the east coast of England in October and up to the end of the 
year. 
Dixon thus writes of the autumn movements of this bird :— Perhaps 
no locality in the British Islands is more suitable or better adapted to 
observe the incoming stream of Sky-Larks than the low-lying ‘coast of 
Lincolnshire, on the northern shores of the Wash. ‘The rush of Sky-Larks 
that land on our eastern coasts in autumn is almost past belief. Towards 
the end of October, or during the first week 11 November, the number that 
pass over these marshes is enormous. When the migration is on, you 
may see the great army of birds passmg at a moderate height for days 
together ; and you may know that the grand flight is still continued during 
the night, by constantly hearing the little travellers calling to each other 
as they pass on, coming from over the sea, to the inland pastures. In the 
daytime many of the birds break out into song the moment they are over 
dry land, as if full of joy at making the passage safely. Comparatively 
