WINTER BIRDS. 211 



assisted by an army of willing helpers, composed 

 of the keepers of Lighthouses round our coasts. 

 It is noticed that thick and foggy weather 

 marks the period of the heaviest migrations ; 

 and that the great autumn movement is per- 

 formed in one or more vast " rushes." Strange 

 it is that the aerial journeys of the little 

 migrants are invariably conducted in the dark- 

 ness and against a head-wind. As though 

 following some long-lost land-line, the birds 

 regularly take the sea over well-defined tracks. 

 The autumn immigrants fly from east to west 

 and north-west— their return journey being 

 conducted over the same lines, though in a 

 contrary direction. It has been noticed that 

 the first great flight occurs about the middle of 

 October, the second just as regularly a month 

 later. 



Perhaps the best way of observing the spring 

 and autumnal bird-movements is to set one's 

 self right in the track of the migrants. It is 

 marvellous how such frail things as Goldcrests 

 make head against a storm, yet the follow- 

 ing shows how vast migratory flocks of these 

 tiny creatures encounter their perils. Autumn 

 winds have torn the more brittle boughs from 



