27O BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



The migration of birds over the extreme south- 

 west peninsula of England is characterised by 

 being more remarkable for what it omits than 

 for what it actually includes. The absence of 

 certain migrational phenomena is, however, a most 

 important key to many apparent anomalies in 

 the distribution and season-flight of birds. Un- 

 fortunately, the entire coast-line between Plymouth 

 and the Varne Light-vessel off the coast of Kent, 

 with the! solitary exception of the station on Start 

 Point, was not represented in the series of observa- 

 tions and reports made by light-keepers to the 

 Committee appointed by the British Association 

 to study the question of avine migration round 

 the British Islands. But in the absence of such 

 data we have many indications that the spring 

 migration of birds into the south of England is 

 much weaker in the west, where the sea is so 

 much wider, than it is in the east, where the sea 

 passage is narrow. As we have already pointed 

 out in our volume dealing specially with the 

 season-flight of British birds, but little migration 

 is reported from the Start Lighthouse, the keeper 

 stating "that very few birds are observed at his 

 station." Then we have the fact that many of our 



