A MONTH ON KENTISH KNOCK LIGHTSHIP 15 



admit it ? — painfully familiar with the voluminous records 

 of such movements chronicled in the migration sched- 

 ules ; but it is one thing to study in cold blood, as 

 it were, masses of statistics, and quite another to 

 witness these bird-streams actually flowing unceasingly 

 before one, hour after hour. It was the marvellous 

 continuity and apparently inexhaustible nature of these 

 movements that were a revelation to me, both on this 

 and other occasions. 



The flocks ceased to be so numerous as we 

 approached the mouth of the Thames proper, but 

 groups of Starlings and Skylarks were still moving 

 westwards when I left the " Irene " at Southend at 



4 P.M. 



A Mistle-Thrush, observed flying somewhat high and 

 to the west soon after we left the Kentish Knock, was 

 the only Thrush that came under my notice during the 

 daytime. 



In addition to the species named as participating in 

 the great diurnal movements I have endeavoured to 

 describe, Swallows and Martins in considerable, and 

 Wheatears in lesser, numbers were also observed moving 

 westwards independently. The fact that these species 

 proceed along this route in autumn is the clearest 

 possible evidence, if such were necessary, that it is also 

 a true passage fly-line for migrants proceeding from the 

 Continent via the English shores to their winter 

 quarters south of the British Isles. These birds of 

 passage, after arriving in south-eastern England, sooner 

 or later take their departure from our southern coast, 

 en route for Africa in some cases, and South- Western 

 Europe in others. Occasionally during the daytime 

 small numbers of the summer birds just mentioned, 



