80 



THE WTIJ.OW-AVARBLER. 



PlitlJlosrojms trorltihis (L.). 



As was the case in 1905, the immigrations of the Willow- 

 Warbler were again remarkable for the enormoijis numbers 

 which arrived simultaneously and were actually observed 

 passing some of the south-coast light.*, as well as for the 

 duration of the migratory periods. Thus, the keeper of 

 St. Katherine's light in the Isle of Wight notes on April 

 tbe 18th : — " There has been a tremendous wave of birds, 

 all the species marked ' many ' " (i. e. Wheatear, Willow- 

 Warbler, &c.) " were simply uncountable, they were in 

 hundreds everywhere/^ Again on April the 25th he notes, 

 " only a moderate flight, almost all Willow- Warblers ; these 

 could have been caught in scores about the lantern windows, 



but very few killed themselves Some thousands of 



Willow-Warblers must have passed here this spring/^ 



The forerunners of the first immigration seem to have 

 landed in Devon about the 18th of March, Avhere they 

 remained for a few days and then dispersed ; other stragglers 

 were recorded in Sussex and Suffolk on the same day, in 

 Somerset on the 29th, and in Hampshire on the 31st. 



The jirst immigration, which appears to have been only a 

 small one, took place on the coast of Dorset on April the 1st 

 in conjunction with a large immigration of Chiffchaffs, 

 Wheatears, &c. From Dorset they could be traced on the 

 following day to Somerset, to Hampshire on the 3rd, Derby 

 and Devon on the 4th, Oxford on the 5th, Cheshire on 

 the 7th, Yorkshire on the 8th, Denbigh on the 9th, and 

 Lancashire and Westmoreland on the 11th. 



The second immigration, also a small one, occurred on the 

 Hampshire coast in the early morning of Ai)ril the (Ith. On the 



