Natural History 427 



thousands." By the end of the month the great flights had ceased, 

 but through November, and even up to the 18th December, the 

 birds continued to pass in "daily flights of from forty to sixty 

 individuals." 



Lighthouse Scenes 



Nocturnal migration is also often observed at lighthouses and 

 lightships, and especially when the weather is foggy thousands of 

 birds, dazzled by the lantern rays, dash themselves against the 

 glass. As Gatke says : "The whole sky is now filled with a babel 

 of hundreds and thousands of voices, and as we approach the light- 

 house, there presents itself to the eye a scene which more than con- 

 firms the experience of the ear. Under the intense glare of the 

 light, swarms of larks, starlings, and thrushes career around in 

 ever-varying density, like showers of brilliant sparks or huge 

 snowflakes driven onwards by the gale, and continuously replaced 

 as they disappear by freshly arrived multitudes. Mingled with 

 these birds are large numbers of golden plovers, lapwings, cur- 

 lews, and sandpipers. Now and again, too, a woodcock is seen; 

 or an owl with slow-beating wings, emerges from the darkness 

 into the circle of light, but again speedily vanishes, accompanied 

 by the plaintive cry of an unhappy thrush that has become its 

 prey." 



The modern method of marking with numbered aluminium 

 foot-rings has already added greatly to our knowledge of the 

 actual journeys performed by individual birds. By this means, 

 for instance, white storks marked in the nest in East Prussia 

 have been traced south-eastwards across Europe to Syria, 

 Palestine, and Egypt, and thence up the Nile to Lake Victoria 

 Nyanza and also away eastwards near Lake Chad, in the 

 very heart of Africa and so southwards through Rhodesia to 

 Natal, the Transvaal and Cape Colony. Five separate swallows, 

 marked with aluminium rings in this country, have been found in 

 South Africa in winter. 



