272 BRITISH BIRDS. 



a moth against a lamp, tried to perch on the wire netting, and was caught 

 by the lighthouse man. I should be afraid to hazard a guess at 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 interest- 

 ing ; in every direction birds could be seen 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 Sky-Larks; but in the heap captured 

 there 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 suburbs of a gas-lit city, 

 being sprinkled over with brilliant lanterns. Many of the Sky-Larks 

 alighted on the ground to rest, and allowed the Heligolauders to pass their 

 nets over them. About three o'clock in the morning 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. 



Equally interesting is the arrival of the Larks on our shores, not only 011 

 the east coast of England, but also on the same coast of Scotland. The 

 ' Migration Report ' for 1882 mentions a rush of Sky-Larks at Sumburgh 

 Head, on the Shetlands, from the ] 1th to the 18th of September. On the 

 Isle of May, in the Firth of Forth, a " vast rush " of Larks and other birds 

 passed westwards in October ; whilst hundreds' are described as being 

 drowned in the sea or killed on the balcony of the lighthouse at Bell Rock, 

 on the coast of the mainland, on the night of the 12th of October. Enor- 

 mous numbers are reported as arriving at twenty-nine stations in various 

 parts of the east coast of England in October and up to the end of the 

 year. 



Dixon thus writes of the autumn movements of this bird : " Perhaps 

 no locality in the British Islands is more suitable or better adapted to 

 observe the incoming stream of Sky-Larks than the low-lying coast of 

 Lincolnshire, on the northern shores of the Wash. The rush of Sky-Larks 

 that land on our eastern coasts in autumn is almost past belief. Towards 

 the end of October, or during the first week in November, the number that 

 pass over these marshes is enormous. When the migration is on, you 

 may see the great army of birds passing at a moderate height for days 

 together ; and you may know that the grand flight is still continued during 

 the night, by constantly hearing the little travellers calling to each other 

 as they pass on, coming from over the sea, to the inland pastures. In the 

 daytime many of the birds break out into song the moment they are over 

 dry land, as if full of joy at making the passage safely. Comparatively 



