124 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



and lightships say that it is only on dark nights, or 

 in snow or fog, that the casualties occur. When the 

 nights are light, or stars are visible, the birds appear 

 to give the lanterns a wide berth. 



What it is that impels these migrants year by 

 year to follow old-established coast-lines, or why 

 they do it at all, has not yet been ascertained. The 

 birds that come to us from continental places might 

 cross the dividing channel between Calais and Dover 

 where it is narrowest, and almost without risk; yet 

 this they never do. They prefer to face the wild 

 North Sea, where thousands perish in crossing. 

 They might follow the warmth and insect life to 

 Southern Europe, along the Mediterranean shores, 

 just flitting from bush to bush, from field to field, 

 and without crossing seas or venturing over waters. 



In certain years marvellous flights of goldcrests 

 arrive on our eastern coasts; and this was notably 

 so in 1882. Hundreds of thousands of these came 

 in one stream between the 6th of August and 5th 

 of November, the migration occupying a period of 

 ninety-two days. Everywhere on the east coast 

 the flocks swarmed for weeks, being recorded to 

 the north from the Faroes, and from the Channel 

 Islands to the south. On the east coast alone they 

 were reported from twenty-one stations from the 

 Faroe Islands to the Hanois Lighthouse. Speaking 

 of the night of the 28th of October, Mr Gatke says: 



