134 WINTER SUNSHINE 



actually perish in the sea during their autumn mi- 

 gration, being carried far out of their course by 

 the prevailing westerly winds of this season, is very 

 great. Occasionally one makes the passage to Great 

 Britain by following the ships, and finding them at 

 convenient distances along the route; and I have 

 been told that over fifty difi'erent species of our more 

 common birds, such as robins, starlings, grosbeaks, 

 thrushes, etc., have been found in Ireland, having, 

 of course, crossed in this way. What numbers of 

 these little navigators of the air are misled and 

 wrecked, during those dark and stormy nights, on 

 the lighthouses alone that line the Atlantic coast? 

 Is it Celia Thaxter who tells of having picked up 

 her apron full of sparrows, warblers, flycatchers, etc., 

 at the foot of the lighthouse on the Isles of Shoals, 

 one morning after a storm, the ground being stiU 

 strewn with birds of all kinds that had dashed them- 

 selves against the beacon, bewildered and fascinated 

 by its tremendous light? 



If a land- bird perishes at sea, a sea-bird is equally 

 cast away upon the land; and I have known the 

 sooty tern, with its almost omnipotent wing, to fall 

 down, utterly famished and exhausted, two hundred 

 miles from salt water. 



But my interest in these things did not last be- 

 yond the third day. About this time we entered 

 what the sailors call the "devil's hole," and a very 

 respectably-sized hole it is, extending from the banks 

 of Newfoundland to Ireland, and in all seasons and 

 weathers it seems to be well stirred up. 



