APRIL 87 



with milder evenings, abundance of moths are flying 

 at dusk. Of course mistakes are made, for how shall 

 either bird or man forecast the vagaries of the English 

 climate ? The Swallows had appeared as usual in 

 April, 1908, when the 24th of the month brought a 

 snow-fall of nearly three inches. They vanished 

 completely, and only returned when conditions once 

 more approached the normal. The list of our British 

 birds is swollen by the inclusion of a large number 

 of species of purely accidental occurrence. Some of 

 these waifs and strays have apparently, when migrat- 

 ing* g°t completely at sea as to direction, though no 

 doubt in other cases they have been carried out of 

 their course by contrary winds or sudden storms. 

 The migrants usually travel by night, and perilous 

 must be the passage in the gusty darkness of early 

 April, till they see the fiery eye of Beachy Head or 

 St. Catharine's flash-light leap out of the sea, and 

 alight in the chilly dawn on English shores, to seek 

 shelter in the nearest thickets at the back of the dunes. 

 Perhaps the perils of the passage may account for the 

 fact that the numbers of some species, as of the Chiff- 

 chaff and Lesser Whitethroat, vary greatly from year 

 to year. 



In distributing themselves over the country, the 

 migrants follow well-defined routes. Their main 

 arteries are usually the river-valleys, such as that of 

 the Severn, and almost all have an objection to travers- 



