126 Mr. W. Ragle Clarke — Bird-migration 



On October 3rd, from 1.30 to 1 a.m., Goldcrests, Mistlc- 

 Thruslies, Song-Thrushes, Blackbirds, Chiffchaffs, Meadow- 

 Pipits, Wheatears, and others were flying round. The rays 

 of light were not very brilliant, however, and comparatively 

 few perished at the lantern. 



The fortnight that followed was devoid of night-movements. 

 There were days on which much E. to W. migration was 

 witnessed, but the nights were birdless, so far as observation 

 was concerned, for the weather conditions were not snch as 

 to render the lantern attractive to passing migrants, if such 

 there were. 



From 6.30 p.m. on the night of October 17th to 5 a.m. 

 on the 18th, Starlings, Larks, Chaffinches, Jackdaws (a few), 

 Rooks (a few), Mistle-Thrushes, Song-Thrushes, Wagtails, 

 Goldcrests, Meadow-Pipits, and probably many other species 

 were careering around the ship, and examples of those 

 named were either killed or captured at the lantern. 

 This was the most important of the night-movements wit- 

 nessed, for some thousands of birds struck the lantern and 

 fell overboard during the ten-and-a-half hours that it was 

 observed. As to this movement, there is, I think, evidence in 

 Favour of its being, in part at least, an E. to AY. migration; it 

 commenced as soon as it was dark, and some of the species 

 participating in it, notably the Rooks, Jackdaws, Chaffinches, 

 Skylarks, and Starlings, had been observed moving in that 

 direction down to within an hour or a little more of the first 

 appearance of the birds at the lantern. Thus it may almost 

 be regarded as a continuation of the flights witnessed during 

 the day. The presence, too, of the Rook and the Jackdaw, 

 and the entire absence of any essentially northern species, 

 must be considered as favourable to this view. 



These night-movements were very interesting to witness, 

 and were novel to me, since they were seen from an 

 entirely new standpoint — namely, from below. Of these new 

 experiences, perhaps the one which impressed me most was 

 that from the deck of a lightship one realised more fully the 

 terrible loss of life that is involved by these nights at the 

 lantern. Here one saw birds actually falling thickly around, 



