28o RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



wind the previous night, with drizzling rain, and at 

 Skegness forty-three were shot in the same day 

 under similar conditions of wind and weather. 



The Annual Reports which have been published 

 by a Committee of the British Association, appointed 

 to collect information in regard to the migration of 

 birds from the keepers of the lighthouses and light- 

 ships, furnish some curious and interesting statistics 

 concerning the arrival of woodcocks in autumn, and 

 establish the following facts : their migration takes 

 place chiefly at night : birds which strike the 

 lanterns of the lighthouses are generally picked up 

 between midnight and daybreak : when a large 

 number come over together, as they often do, they 

 fly with the wind ; but, as an exception, single 

 birds have been seen to arrive with the wind against 

 them. During the autumn migration comparatively 

 few are observed at stations on the west coast of 

 Scotland, while during the spring migration few are 

 seen on the east coast, and this applies to England 

 as well as to Scotland. 



In 1882 large numbers of woodcocks arrived on 

 the east coast of England on the night of October 1 2, 

 or early morning of the 13th, with a strong easterly 

 wind, fog, and drizzling rain. On the morning of 

 the 13th they were reported from nine different 

 stations, covering two hundred and fifty miles of 

 coast line, from the Fame Islands to Orfordness. 

 Presumably this, the great flight of the season, did 

 not start from the same locality, but from various 

 parts of the opposite coast of Europe — places 

 perhaps widely apart. Both before and after 



