DIRECTION OF THE MIGRATION FLIGHT 31 



Naumann's weighty and unassailable authority stands pre-eminent. 

 In his incomparable work he again and again proclaims in the 

 most decisive manner, that ' birds on their departure travel from 

 the direction of the rising to that of the setting sun, and in the 

 opposite direction when they return in the spring,' or ' that their 

 migration in autumn proceeds in a straight direction from east to 

 west.' He shows by an ample number of instances under what 

 conditions this may be noticed by day or perceived at night from 

 the voices of the birds (Vogel Deutscklands, i. Introduction). 



The highly interesting observations conducted since 1879 at 

 the lighthouses and lightships on the English and Scotch coasts in 

 regard to the species, numbers, and direction of flight of migrants 

 have yielded similar results. From these observations it appears 

 that all autumn migrants, with the exception of some northern 

 swimming birds, arrive on the east coast of England by a westering 

 flight. The same was observed on the east coast of Scot- 

 land, where, moreover, an opportunity was offered of observing 

 how this course was continued in an unchanged direction across 

 the mainland to the west coast. In many cases the flight in this 

 direction did not even end there ; thus at Cape Wrath, the most 

 north-westerly point of the mainland of Scotland, the Gannet was 

 observed passing in a westward direction for from six to eight days, 

 its numbers being estimated at from two to three thousand. This 

 westering flight must, however, of necessity have terminated in the 

 northern Hebrides (Migration Reports). 



Woodcock were likewise met with numerously on the east 

 coast of Scotland. On eastern points of all the islands of the 

 Orkney group they occurred more unequally and irregularly, but 

 Saxby reports that they are also frequently met with on the 

 Shetland Islands in the course of the autumn. This species is still 

 found breeding beyond central Sweden, i.e. to the east, but only in 

 isolated instances; hence all the birds above referred to could 

 only have reached Scotland and its northern islands by a westerly 

 course of flight; from thence, as a glance at the maps of the 

 country at once will show, this westerly course of migration must of 

 necessity pass into a southerly one. 



The observations of the late John Wolley (reported to me by 

 letter by Professor A. Newton) furnish the most northern example 

 of an autumn migration proceeding in a direction from east to west. 

 By the end of his first year's stay at Muonioniska in Lapland, 68 N. 

 lat., this observer already felt convinced that migration proceeded 

 in this direction. He first recognised this fact from the numerous 

 arrivals of the Yellow Bunting at the close of the summer. These 

 birds could not have arrived in such numbers in that locality during 



