686 REPORT—-1885. 
burgh. It will prove a useful and valuable addition to the report, and a 
great assistance to readers and observers. 
The report shows that on the east coast of England a great move- 
ment was carried on for six months in the autumn and winter of 1884-5 
The schedules returned indicate that no one place had special preference, 
and that the inflow of migrants was equally distributed over the entire 
coast line. 
The southerly movement of migrants was well established in July, and 
from this time to the end of the third week in January 1885 there was 
a steady flow, with slight intermissions, of birds either passing along the 
coast to the south or moving directly inland, the vast majority coming 
from the east across the North Sea, and moving westward or in westerly 
directions. Occasionally there have been heavy rushes or persistent bird 
waves, continuous for days and even weeks. 
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 to the coast from the 
middle of October (15th) to the end of the month, 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 ‘ great rush’ of immigrants on to the east 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 is again indicated in the 
autumn and spring of 1884-5. 
With very few exceptions, the vast majority of our British birds, such 
as are generally considered habitual residents—the young invariably, the 
old intermittingly—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 
found less favourable to existence. These immigrants on the approach of 
spring leave, moving back to the Continent on the same lines, but in the 
reverse direction to those traversed in the 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 move- 
ments of special interest. Blackbirds have crossed the North Sea in extra- 
ordinary numbers, commencing on September 12 and throughout October, 
and immense numbers in November ; on the 11th, 12th, and 13th the rush 
appears to have been continuons, night and day, over the whole coast 
line ; after this intermittent to the end of the third week in January 1885. 
