21 



but in less numbers to November 15tb. . . ." A continuous 

 rush N.E. to S.W. seems to point to the Scandinavian origin of 

 this flight. As will be seen later on Mr. Eagle Clark, in his 

 digest of all these light-house and light-ship records, has come 

 to the conclusion that direct migration from Heligoland to our 

 East coast only takes place on rare occasions. If the Hooded 

 Crows seen in Lincolnshire are identical with those passing the 

 former locality, they must reach us by a somewhat circuitous 

 route. This is important in view of the fact that Herr Gatke 

 bases one of his computations on the speed attained by migra- 

 tory birds on the identity of these flocks. 



We are not told much about the return migration of the 

 Hooded Crow in spring ; but we learn that the species passes 

 Heligoland, travelling towards the west, in rare instances at a 

 vast height, but usually at no greater elevation than 100 feet, and 

 in smaller numbers than those observed in the autumn ; there 

 is also no evidence set before us to prove that the breadth of 

 flight is so great as at the former period. There will, perhaps, 

 not be much tendency on the part of the flocks to break up 

 until the eastern shores of the Baltic are reached ; any inclina- 

 tion to scatter, and thus present a broad migration front until 

 later in the journey, would be thus avoided at the time of passage 

 by the island. 



After weighing all the evidence in favour of the far eastern 

 origin of these great flocks of Crows, and the supposed westerly 

 course of their flight, one is inclined to agree with Herr Gatke 

 that the foregoing considerations have gone no further (or even 

 so far) than to prove that they have maintained a westerly flight 

 over a stretch of some 600 miles. But whether this is enough to 

 justify our assuming that all these countless hosts of wanderers 

 have regularly maintained this direction from the commencement 

 of their migration, is, in the light of the evidence adduced, very 

 much open to question. 



In further considering the theory of a migration conducted 

 in a broad front, we pass from the evidence afforded by a very 

 common species to that presented by a comparatively rare one, 

 viz., the Honey Buzzard. We are also told that this species 

 furnishes further proof of a migration in a direction from the far 



