457 



THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS AS OBSERVED AT 

 LIGHTHOUSES IN 1882.* 



The General Report of the Committe, of which this is an 

 abstract, comprises the observations taken at lighthouses and 

 light-vessels, and a few special land stations on the east and west 

 coasts of England and Scotland, the coasts of Ireland, Isle of 

 Man, Channel Islands, Orkney and Shetland Isles, the Hebrides, 

 Faroes, Iceland, and Heligoland; and one Baltic station, — Stevns 

 Fyr on Stevn Klint, Zealand, — for which the committee is indebted 

 to Professor Liitken, of Copenhagen. Altogether 196 stations 

 have been supplied with schedules and printed instructions for 

 registering observations, and returns have been received from 

 about 123— a result which is very satisfactory, showing as it does 

 the general interest taken in the work, and the ready co-operation 

 given by the light-keepers in assisting the committee. 



The stations returning the best-filled schedules are — on the 

 east coast of Scotland : the Pentland Skerries, nine, Sumburgh 

 Head, four, Bell Rock, three, and Isle of May no less than 

 nineteen; on the east coast of England: Fame Islands, eleven, 

 and after this Flamborough Head, Spurn Point, and several of the 

 light-vessels off our south-east coast. On the Irish coast the best 

 returns have come in from the Tuskar Rock, on the Wexford 

 coast. This is the extreme south-eastern point of Ireland, and 

 the nearest land to the Welsh coast, and seems well situated for 

 observations. 



Taken as a whole, and comparing them with reports from the 

 English coasts and elsewhere, it is evident that Ireland lies 

 comparatively out of the track of migrants ; and its western 

 stations are especially poor. These have, however, much interest 

 in themselves, in the notices of the movements and habits of the 

 various seafowl frequenting that wild district. 



* Eeport of the Committee, consisting of Mr. John Cordeaux (Secretary), 

 Mr. J. A. Harvie Brown, Mr. P. M. C. Kermode, Professor Newton, Mr. 

 R. M.Barrington, and Mr. A. G. More, reappointed by the British Association 

 at Southampton, for the purpose of obtaining (with the consent of the Master 

 and Brethren of the Trinity House, and the Commissioners of Northern and 



Irish Lights) observations on the Migration of Birds at Lighthouses and 



Lightships, and of reporting on the same. 



