460 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



twenty-one stations from the Fame Islands to the Hanois Light- 

 house, Guernsey, and on the east coast of Scotland at the chief 

 stations from the Isle of May to Sumburgh Head (at which latter 

 station they have rarely been seen in previous years). Mr. 

 Garrioch, writing from Lerwick, says : — " In the evening of the 

 9th of October my attention was called to a large flock of birds 

 crossing the harbour from the island of Bressay, and on coming 

 to a spot on the shore where a number had taken refuge from the 

 storm I found the flock to consist of Goldcrests and a few Fire- 

 crests* amongst them; the Goldcrests spread over the entire 

 island, and were observed in considerable numbers till the middle 

 of November." The earliest notice on the east coast is August Gth, 

 the latest November 5th, or ninety-two days ; they arrived some- 

 what sparingly in August and September, and in enormous numbers 

 in October, more especially on the nights of October 7th and 12th, 

 at the latter date with the Woodcock. This flight appears to 

 have extended across England to the Irish coast, for on the night 

 of the 12th a dozen struck the lantern of the Tuskar Rock Light- 

 house, and on the night of the 13th they were continually striking 

 all night. During the autumn enormous numbers crossed Heli- 

 goland, more especially in October. On the night from the 28th 

 to the 29th Mr. Gatke remarks : — " We have had a perfect storm 

 of Goldcrests, perching on the ledges of the window-panes of the 

 lighthouse, preening their feathers in the glare of the lamps. On 

 the 2'Jth all the island swarmed with them, filling the gardens and 

 over all the cliff — hundreds of thousands. By 9 a.m. most of 

 them had passed on again." Not less remarkable was the great 

 three days' flight of the Common Jay, past and across Heligoland, 

 on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of October. Thousands on thousands, 

 without interruption, passed on overhead, north and south of the 

 island too, multitudes like a continual stream, all going east to 

 west in a strong south-easterly gale. It would have been inte- 

 resting if we had been able to correlate this migration of Jays 

 with any visible arrival on our English coast, but in none of the 

 returns is any mention made of Jays. Subsequently we have 

 received numerous notices of extraordinary numbers seen during 

 the winter in our English woodlands. This seems especially to 



* The distinction between the two species had been clearly pointed out to 

 Mr. Garrioch. 



