214 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



more are expected. The daughter of the Light- 

 house-keeper is trimming' the lights. The old 

 man himself is busily engaged in filling in 

 schedules which are next year to form the 

 materials from which to compile a Report on 

 the Migration of Birds. He shows something 

 more than an intelligent interest in his sub- 

 jects — knowing most by name, and describing 

 the flight and call-notes of the species he 

 fails to recognize so accurately as to render 

 ultimate identification by competent naturalists 

 certain. It is now nearly one o'clock. A 

 strong east wind blows over the North Sea, 

 with fog and drizzling rain. For hours flocks 

 of larks, starlings, mountain-sparrows, titmice, 

 wrens, redbreasts, chaffinches, and plovers strike 

 the light, and hundreds have fallen. Thousands 

 of birds are flying round the lantern — their 

 white breasts, as they dart to and fro in the 

 light-circle, having the appearance of a heavy 

 fall of snow. This is continued hour after 

 hour. The majority are larks, starlings, and 

 thrushes. A thousand must now have struck 

 the light and gone over into the sea. The 

 keepers of the Lighthouses and lightships say 

 that it is only on dark nights, snow, or fog, that 



