SPRING MIGRATION IN BRITISH AREA 245 



we may include the Blackbird, the Robin, and the Gold- 

 crest, the Greenfinch, the Chaffinch, and the Starling, 

 the Jackdaw and the Hooded Crow, the Short-eared 

 Owl, the Ring Dove, and the Lapwing. Years ago, 

 before the Crane had been well-nigh exterminated in 

 the British Islands, it would have left its winter quarters 

 in our area with this second migratory movement. We 

 have abundant testimony from the various lighthouses 

 and light-vessels stationed on our eastern coast, or in 

 the North vSea, that the migration of all these species is 

 undoubtedly in progress very early in the spring, con- 

 tinuing more or less strongly for just upon a couple of 

 months. Sometimes birds of these species are noticed 

 passing away from the British Area in great numbers for 

 days together, but the migration is only in very excep- 

 tional instances so strongly marked as the return move- 

 ment in autumn. It has been stated (conf. Migration 

 Reports) that there is apparently a south-eastern de- 

 parture from our shores in spring, but this, if true, is 

 utterly abnormal, and due entirely to local conditions. 

 I for one should require more accurate and positive 

 proof of this movement than that furnished in support 

 of it by the entirely unskilled observers that have re- 

 ported the anomalous migration. It is impossible to 

 say accurately in what direction a body of migrants 

 may be going on a dark night, when the birds are 

 bewildered by adverse weather, and flying dazed and 

 lost round the lanterns of a lighthouse. We can only 

 accept the reports as useful when they are made under 

 fairly normal circumstances, and obviously harmonize 

 with known Laws of migration and geographical dispersal. 

 Again, a strong migration from the east and north-east 



