494 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
autumn; at the same time, also, our own birds return from the 
Continent to their nesting-quarters in these islands. 
The notes under the head of separate species indicate several 
movements of special interest. Blackbirds crossed the North 
Sea in extraordinary numbers, commencing on September 12th 
and throughout October, and immense numbers in November ; 
on the 11th, 12th, and 18th the rush appears to have been con- 
tinuous, night and day, over the whole coast line; after this, 
intermittent to the end of the third week in January, 1885. 
The Arctic Bluethroat occurred in some numbers between 
September 8th and 18th; eighty to one hundred were observed 
in one locality on the Norfolk coast on the 12th. 
The migration of the Goldcrest was very pronounced. With 
one exception, the migration of this bird on the East and West 
Coasts of England commenced at the same date, August 28th, 
and also ended on the same date, November 16th. 
On the night of October 4th, the time of the total eclipse of 
the moon, during the hours of greatest darkness, between 9 and 
12 p.m., as observed by a member of the Committee (Mr. Harvie 
Brown), Goldcrests were striking the lantern of the Isle of May 
Lighthouse. On the Irish Coast the same night, at the South 
Maidens Lighthouse, twenty struck at 10 p.m., and at Rathlin 
Island Lighthouse the same number were taken at midnight. 
There was a great arrival of Pied Flycatchers during the 
first week in May, 1885, at stations between Yarmouth and the 
Pentland Skerries. At Flamborough they arrived with a N.E. 
wind, accompanied by male Redstarts. Immense numbers of 
Ring Doves and Stock Doves crossed from the Continent between 
the 21st October and the end of November. 
The main body of Woodcocks generally arrive in two flights, 
known to east-coast sportsmen as the “first flight,” and after 
this the ‘‘ great flight.” In the autumn of 1884 the immigration 
of this species was most prolonged, commencing on September 
1st, and continuing onward to January 20th, 1885, or 142 days. 
Four distinct rushes or flights are indicated: October 5th and 
6th, another on the 10th to the 16th, a third, probably the 
“oveat flight,” on the 28th; and again a very large flight 
between November 11th and 13th—a flight which also extended 
very far north, to the Pentland Skerries. The dates of the chief 
flights across Heligoland will be found to correlate very closely 
