LINES OF MIGEATION. Ixi 



the British Association. Many points about which there was 

 obscurity have been cleared up, and much that was extremely 

 puzzling to students of Bird Migration has been explained. It is 

 not without considerable diffidence and hesitation that we offer to 

 our readers the two outline maps at the end of the book illustrating 

 the Migration of Birds. We have long hoped that the Committee 

 of the British Association would have seen its way to the publication 

 of a map or maps showing the results deduced from the observations 

 made under its auspices at the Lighthouses on the British Coasts, 

 but as none have appeared we have made an attempt, imperfect in 

 many respects, as we are well aware, to lay down on Migration Map 

 No. 2 (Arrival Routes) the broader and more salient facts, as we 

 understand them, so as to illustrate and render visible the manner 

 in which so many different streams of Migration converge upon 

 Devonshire and render its Avifauna so extraordinarily rich. There 

 are, however, many facts that cannot well be shown on a single 

 map, and which would require several distinct maps to illustrate 

 properly. There is a simultaneous exodus from the Eastern shores 

 of England to the Continent of the identical species coming from 

 thence to us at the same season. Migrants from Ireland in early 

 autumn appear to cross from the south coast of that island to the 

 north coast of Devon and the shores of the Severn Sea, and 

 probably occasion the influx of Warblers, &c., perceived on the 

 south coast of Devon in August, they having crossed the county 

 from north to south, taking their departure from our south coast 

 when leaving the British Islands for the Continent. 



Our object in presenting Map No. 1 is simply to give an idea of 

 the direction from which the principal Streams of Birds approach 

 us in autumn. They come to us from the South-east, East, North- 

 east, North, and North-west at that season, and give quite a 

 cosmopolitan character to our Ornis, as will be apparent to any- 

 one who will read the following pages of our book. We have 

 not attempted to deal in detail with the vast subject of Continental 

 Migrations. All we have considered was how our own County 

 was aflccted by the various movements of our Ecathercd Friends. 

 As we investigated the subject we could not help being much im- 

 pressed by the remarkable manner in which the migratory streams 

 cross each other, but all concentrating on the South-western 

 Peninsula of England. It will be obvious how it is that northern 



