THE PERILS OF MIGRATION 107 



by a panic, they would come against the glass so 

 rapidly . . . that the sound of the blows resembled 

 the pattering of hail/' During his stay no birds 

 came to the light except during dense cloud or 

 fog, and they came in greatest numbers when an 

 hour or two before the fog the sky was clear. 



The experiences of Eagle Clarke, Seebohm and 

 others who have spent migration seasons at light- 

 houses might be quoted, but these two give a vivid 

 description of what regularly takes place when 

 weather conditions are unfavourable. Steady white 

 lights are the most fatal to migrants, revolving 

 lights, if white, are struck by some birds, but red 

 lights seldom attract the passers. Mr Eagle Clarke 

 thinks that birds are actually decoyed from their 

 path and arrested in their course by the action 

 of the lights ; he says that a change from white 

 to red lights at the Galloper Lightship stopped bird 

 attraction. 



On the mainland a new high building or tower, 

 new telegraph wires or other erections, until their 

 presence is familiar, take toll of passage birds. 



Mr R. M. Barrington has for years collected 

 information from the Irish lighthouses and light- 

 vessels ; some of his results were added to the 

 work of the British Association Committee, and 

 some he published himself (5). He emphasises the 

 fact that these phenomena depend largely upon 



