258 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. chap. xx. 



course, fluttered for a moment as if dazzled by the light, 

 and then gradually vanished with the rest in the western 

 gloom. Occasionally a bird wheeled round the lighthouse 

 and then passed on, and occasionally one fluttered against 

 the glass like a moth against a lamp, tried to perch on the 

 Avire netting and was caught by the lighthouse man. I 

 should be afraid to hazard a guess as to 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 interesting; in every 

 direction birds were 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 

 skylarks. In the heap captured 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 like the 

 outskirts of a gas-lighted city, being sprinkled over with 

 brilliant lanterns. Many of the larks alighted on the 

 ground to rest, and allowed the Heligolanders to pass their 

 nets over them. About three o'clock a.m. 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. 



The conclusion I came to after my Heligoland experi- 

 ence was that the desire to migrate was an hereditary 



