ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 231 
the next year to the end of January, yet the main body of migrants 
appear to have reached the east coast in October, and of these a large ° 
proportion during the first fortnight in the month. From the 6th to the 
8th inclusive, and again from the 12th to the 15th, there was, night and 
day, an enormous rush, under circumstances of wind and weather which, 
observations have shown, are most unfavourable to a good passage. 
During these periods birds arrived in an exhausted condition, and we 
have reasons for concluding, from the many reported as alighting on 
fishing smacks and vessels in the North Sea, that the loss of life must 
have been very considerable. Large flights also are recorded as having 
appeared round tke lanterns of lighthouses and light-vessels during the 
night migration. From the 6th to the 9th inclusive strong east winds 
blew over the North Sea, with fog and drizzling rain, and from the night 
of the 12th to 17th very similar weather prevailed. Mr. W. Littlewood, 
of the Galloper lightship, forty miles south-east of Orfordness, reports 
that, on the night of October the 6th, larks, starlings, tree-sparrows, 
titmice, common wrens, redbreasts, chaffinches, and plovers were picked up 
on the deck, and that it is calculated that from five to six hundred struck 
the rigging and fell overboard: a large proportion of these were larks. 
Thousands of birds were flying round the lantern from 11.50 p.m. to 
4.45 a.m., their white breasts, as they dashed to and fro in the circle of 
light, having the appearance of a heavy snowstorm. This was repeated 
on the 8th and 12th, and on the night of the 13th 160 were picked up 
on deck, including larks, starlings, thrushes, and two redbreasts. It was 
thought that 1,000 struck and went overboard into the sea. It is only 
on dark rainy nights, with snow or fog, that such casualties occur ; when 
the nights are light, or any stars visible, the birds give the lanterns a 
wide berth. 
Undoubtedly the principal feature of the antumn migration has been 
the extraordinary abundance of the gold-crested wren. The flights 
appear to have covered not only the east coast of England, but to have 
extended southward to the Channel Islands and northward to the 
Faroes (see Report, East Coast of Scotland). On the east coast of 
England they are recorded at no less than twenty-one stations from the 
Farne Islands to the Hanois, L.H., Guernsey, and on the east coast of 
Scotland at the chief stations from the Isle of May to Sunburgh 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 gold-crests and a few fire-crests | amongst them; the 
gold-crests spread over the entire island and were observed in considerable 
numbers till the middle of November.’ The earliest notice on the Hast 
Coast is August 6th, the latest November 5th, or ninety-two days; they 
arrived somewhat 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 Tuscar Rock Lighthouse, and on the night of 
1 The distinction between the two species had been clearly pointed out to Mr. 
Garrioch. 
