STRANGERS OF THE AUTUMN. 205 



as the bird is occasionally seen in Western Europe 

 and has been taken on Heligoland. The last 

 species with which we have to deal is the Shore 

 Lark. Like the Waxwing and the Snow Bunting, 

 this bird is only a gipsy migrant, having no settled 

 winter home, wandering south with hard weather, 

 and returning north as soon as the storms are 

 past. It comes from the tundras of the Arctic 

 regions, sometimes in considerable flocks, and 

 appears to be of much more frequent occurrence 

 than formerly, though this may be because there 

 are more people on the look-out for rare birds 

 than used to be the case. 



Three examples of the Needle-tailed Swift 

 have been obtained in the British Islands. This 

 bird belongs to a little group of species remarkable 

 for the peculiar structure of the tail, the shafts of 

 which are prolonged beyond the web into sharp 

 spines. The Needle-tailed Swift is another bird 

 inhabiting the far east which occasionally takes 

 the wrong direction, and finds its way to Europe 

 instead of Australia in autumn. One of the 

 British examples of this bird is in the possession 

 of my friend, Mr. Tomalin, of Northampton. It 

 was shot upwards of fifteen years ago, in the 

 autumn, at Great Hawksley, in Essex. 



The Purple Heron and the Glossy Ibis are 

 only found in Europe during summer, and in 

 autumn occasional stragglers wander as far as the 

 British Islands, where they are most frequently 

 observed in the eastern and southern counties of 

 England. The Purple Herons are mostly in the 



