MIGRATION AND FLIGHT. 91 



arrival ; but in some instances, circumstances afford us the 

 means of speaking more positively. Thus, on a well-known 

 rocky island, called the South Stack, near Holyhead, the 

 Lighthouse keepers assured us that the Gulls, which seldom 

 visit the island for two-thirds of the year, arrive on the 

 same night, namely, February 10th, for the purpose of 

 breeding. They are regularly warned of the arrival of their 

 summer guests, about midnight, by a great noise, as it were 

 a mutual greeting and cheering ; and from that moment they 

 remain till their broods are reared, and the business for which 

 they resorted thither entirely at an end. 



The light-keepers spoke with pleasure of the arrival of 

 the birds, saying that they looked to their return as that of 

 so many old acquaintances after a long absence, announcing 

 the spring to be at hand, and the winter to be over and 

 gone. 



In alluding to light-keepers, we may mention a curious 

 circumstance connected with birds of passage, namely, that 

 during their migrations in the night, they frequently fly with 

 such force against the strong plate-glass reflectors of light- 

 houses, as to be killed on the spot. Instances of this have 

 occurred at Flamborough Head, where, we have been in- 

 formed, that Ducks, Woodcocks, Starlings, Fieldfares, Red- 

 wings, and in short every species of the migratory tribes, have 

 fallen victims to the attractive but unintentional decoy. The 

 astonishing number of seventeen dozen of Starlings were, at 

 the latter end of 1836, picked up near the above-mentioned 

 light-house, having been killed, maimed, or stupified by flying 

 against the dome of that brilliant light. 



It has been observed that the time of departure of certain 

 birds is by no means so exact as that of their arrival ; which 

 may be accounted for by a natural disinclination on the part of 

 the old ones to desert the nests of young ones still requiring 

 their care. But even this most powerful of all instincts, the 

 attachment of a parent to its young, is not in all cases strong 

 enough to conquer the still stronger impulse for migration ; 

 for Swallows will actually desert their nests, and leave help- 

 less little ones to perish by hunger, rather than remain long 



