THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS 69 



general phenomenon, but it varies greatly in its con 

 spicuousness that is, as to the number of birds taking part 

 at one time, and as to the length of the flight . Gatke tells us 

 that from ten o'clock on the night of the 28th October 1882 

 to early next morning, golden-crested wrens eddied round the 

 lighthouse at Heligoland thick as flakes in a snowstorm, and 

 that they covered every square foot of the island. In the 

 same year, about the beginning of the second week of 

 October, flocks of the same beautiful birds were simul- 

 taneously observed at all the lighthouses, lightships, and 

 many land-stations from Guernsey in the south to Bressay 

 among the Shetlands in the north. That is to say, 

 the breadth of the marching column was something like 

 640 geographical miles. In other cases, the migration 

 occurs without our seeing any excited crowds ; yesterday 

 they were with us, and to-day they are gone. 



In Britain most of the mass-movements of migrants 

 take place at night, so that we get little impression of the 

 enormous numbers, except when they call as they pass 

 overhead, or are drawn, especially on misty nights, within 

 the bewildering fascination of the lighthouse. The light- 

 house-keepers and ornithologists who have been allowed 

 for a time to bear them company, have sometimes great 

 experiences "of birds in countless hosts, drifting by in 

 feathery tides ; birds passing for days together, literally 

 square miles of them ; birds by day and birds by night, 

 flying in regular steady waves or in bewildering rushes/' 



" Who can recount what transmigrations there 

 Are annual made ? What nations come and go ? 

 And how the living clouds on clouds arise ? 

 Infinite wings ! till all the plume-dark air 

 And rude resounding shore, are one wild cry." 



And as to the distance travelled, it may be from Scotland 

 to Ireland, as seems to be true of some peewits ; or from 



