38 BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 



Our fishermen say that they often at this season 

 alight on the fishing-smacks in the North Sea; and 

 in thick foggy weather hundreds perish, as they be- 

 come quite bewildered, their instinct apparently for- 

 saking them, not knowing which direction to take. 

 It is not so much wild stormy weather and high 

 winds that are fatal to our little migratories in their 

 long dreary passage, but thick, and especially drizzly 

 aaadfoffffy weather. 



Although the time of arrival of these, as well as 

 many other of our winter visitors, is pretty well 

 ascertained, we know as yet little of the date of their 

 departure. No doubt these autumn flights do again 

 leave our shores for the north in the spring ; and it is 

 not improbable that the vernal migration is performed 

 by the Goldcrests in little companies, and not in 

 those large bodies we see in the autumn, and that 

 they thus escape observation. I am led to this con- 

 clusion from having in April seen them in small 

 parties in the marsh hedgerows near the coast, situ- 

 ations where they never remain to breed. Some are 

 resident throughout the year in Scandinavia. 



60. REGULUS IGNICAPILLUS (Brehm) . Fire-crested 

 Regulus. 



I cannot ascertain that this rarity has ever been 

 captured in the Humber district. It is, however, 

 probably of more common occurrence in this country 

 than is generally supposed, and has hitherto been 



