398 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



attention was particularlj' directed to the main lines of migration 

 by which birds approach the east coast of Scotland both in spring 

 and autumn. The two chief lines indicated are by the Pentland 

 Firth and Pentland Skerries, also by the entrance of the Firth of 

 Forth as far north as the Bell Rock Lighthouse. On the east 

 coast of England the stream of migration is not continuous over 

 the whole coast line, but the same direction is persistently followed 

 year by year. There is a well-marked line, both of entry and 

 return, to the Fame Islands, on the coast of Northumberland. 

 Second to this in importance is the mouth of the Tees, both in 

 the spring and autumn. 



The North Yorkshire coast and the elevated moorland 

 district from the south of Redcar to Flamborough, including 

 the north side of the headland, is comparatively barren, few 

 birds appearing there. Bridlington Bay and Holderness to 

 Spurn and Lincolnshire, as far as Gibraltar Point, on the 

 coast of Lincolnshire, give, perhaps, the best returns on the 

 east coast. 



In Norfolk there are indications, in the returns sent from 

 the Llynwells, Dudgeon, Leman Ower, and Happisburgh light- 

 vessels, that a dense stream of birds pours along the coast from 

 east to west, probably to pass inland by the estuary of the Wash 

 and the river systems of the Nene and Welland into the centre of 

 England, thence following the line of the Avon Valley and the 

 north bank of the Severn and Bristol Channel, and crossing the 

 Irish Sea to enter Ireland at the Tuskar Rock, off the Wexford 

 coast. This is apparently the main thoroughfare for birds in 

 transit across England to Ireland in the autumn. Large numbers 

 of migrants also which pass inland from the coasts of Holderness 

 and Lincolnshire eventually join in with this great western high- 

 way by the line of the Trent, avoiding altogether the mountainous 

 districts of Wales. The coast of Essex, with the northern side 

 of the Thames is fairly good ; but the coast of Kent, between the 

 North and South Forelands, including the four Goodwin and the 

 Varne lightships, is an uninteresting district for arrivals, the chief 

 migrants seen being such as are apparently following the coast to 

 the south. 



Autumn migrants approaching the Humber from the sea cross 

 the river diagonally from E.S.E, to W.N.W. This course is so 

 persistently followed that year by year, on such days when migra- 



