WINTER BIRDS. 215 



these casualties occur. When the nights are 

 light, or any stars are visible, the birds appear 

 to give the lanterns a wide berth. 



Speaking of the night of the 28th of October, 

 1885, Mr. Gatke says, " We have had a perfect 

 storm of Goldcrests, poor little souls ! perching 

 on the ledges of the window-panes of the light- 

 house, preening their feathers in the glare of the 

 lamps. On the 29th, all the island * swarmed 

 with them, filling the gardens and all over the 

 cliff — hundreds of thousands. By 9 a.m. most of 

 them had passed on again." As to the state in 

 which the little travellers arrive, Mr. Cordeaux 

 tells me that, on a morning after an extraordi- 

 nary flight, he saw numbers of Goldcrests on the 

 hedgerows and bushes in the open marsh district 

 of the Humber, creeping up and down the reeds 

 in the drains ; and at his lonely marsh farmstead 

 they were everywhere busily searching for 

 insects in nook and corner, fold-yard fence, 

 cattle-shed, and stacks. 



Just about the time of the ruin of the year 



vast flocks of Woodcock alight on our shores, 



passing southwards from their breeding-grounds. 



Like the rest of the migrants, the Woodcocks 



* Heligoland. 



