xxviii INTRODUCTION. 



into our area from the north and east. This month brings the first of the White- 

 fronted and Bean Geese, Bewick's Swans, and Mute Swans, Gadwalls, Long- 

 tailed Ducks, Goosanders, and Smews. The migration of the Spotted Crake 

 draws to a close this month, also that of the Garganey. Not only are the various 

 species of wild fowl coming into our Islands and seas in vast numbers, but similar 

 multitudes are coasting south. The Dotterel completes its migration in October, 

 as also do the Eed-necked Phalarope, the Common Sandpiper (except in a few 

 isolated instances), the Greenshank, the Whimbrel, and the Black-tailed Godwit. 

 November brings the normal autumn migration of Wild Fowl to a close. Geese, 

 Swans, and Ducks continue to arrive in our area or to pass our Islands to still 

 more southern haunts. Ring Doves and Stock Doves are still migrating into this 

 country, a few Corn Crakes, Stone Curlews, and Kentish Plovers are still moving 

 out of it ; whilst many Plovers and Sandpipers, Bar-tailed Godwits, Purple Sand- 

 pipers, Knots, and Sanderlings, still coast us on their way south. Vertical migra- 

 tion commences in July and August among such species as Lapwings, Golden 

 Plovers, Curlews, Dunlins, Eedshanks, and Mallards, and is continued until 

 October, when the uplands are practically cleared of their wading birds of passage. 

 We have not space here to describe in detail the actual movements of these 

 various species of Wild Fowl. There is something intensely interesting, and at 

 times most impressive, about their seasonal movements, more often than not 

 performed under the cover of darkness. Their wild expressive cries when on 

 passage across the night sky, the rush of their rapidly moving wings in the dark- 

 ness overhead, their visits to the light-houses when lost and bewildered by adverse 

 atmospheric conditions, are all of exceptional interest, and combine in forming a 

 demonstration of avine migration of a most impressive kind. The reader who 

 might care to pursue this fascinating subject further, may be referred to our two 

 volumes on migration, as well as to Gatke's monumental work on the Birds of 

 Heligoland. 



