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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 498 
lighthouses and light-vessels, as well as at several land-stations, 
on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland (except the South 
Coast of England), and the outlying islands; also from Heligo- 
land, two stations in the Baltic, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. 
Altogether 193 stations have been supplied with printed schedules 
for registering observations, and returns have been sent in from 
118. Weare at a loss to understand why the South Coast of 
England has been so neglected, there being no returns from any 
station between the Start t.H. and the Varne t.y. 
The periods of migration occupied by different species vary 
greatly, from four weeks to as many months; no general rule 
can be laid down in this respect. 
There was an immense and continuous rush on the coast 
from October 15th to 31st, migrants arriving continuously night 
and day. This rush was continued at some of the stations with 
but slight intermissions to the middle of November. 
On the East Coast of Scotland, whilst desultory movements 
continued during September and October, the heaviest rushes 
are recorded in the middle of November. The last fortnight in 
October is the average annual period of what may be called the 
“ereat rush” of immigrants on the Kast Coast of England. 
In previous Reports attention has been drawn to the fact of a 
migration in opposite directions going on at the same time over 
the North Sea. This is observed more particularly at south- 
eastern stations, on light-vessels moored at many miles distance 
from the nearest land, where, during the spring and autumn, the 
same species of birds, as Crows, Rooks, Jackdaws, Starlings, 
Larks, Sparrows, Buntings, and Finches, are recorded crossing 
the North Sea, moving from opposite quarters and passing both 
towards the British coast and towards the Continent. This 
apparently abnormal movement in opposite directions was again 
indicated in the autumn and spring of 1884-5. 
With few exceptions, the majority of resident British birds 
leave these islands in the autumn, their place being taken by 
others, not always necessarily of the same species, coming from 
more northern latitudes, or from districts of Eastern Europe, 
where, on the approach of winter, the conditions of locality and 
food-supply are less favourable to existence. These immigrants, 
on the approach of spring, return to the Continent on the same 
lines, but in the reverse direction to those traversed in the 
