THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. XVI.] DECEMBER, 1892. [No. J 92. 



MIGRATION IN THE HUMBER DISTRICT IN THE 

 AUTUMN of 1892. 



By John Cokdeaux. 



Amongst the many interesting features connected with the 

 migration of birds during the past autumn, perhaps the most 

 worthy of record have been the two "great rushes" of migrants 

 — the first on Sept. 20th — 21st, and the second on Oct. 14th, 

 15th, 16th, and under precisely similar conditions of weather. 



On Sept. 20th the wind shifted suddenly to N.E., with much 

 rain and strong wind. On the morning of the 21st, on the 

 Lincolnshire coast, as Mr. G. H. Caton Haigh writes, " I found 

 all the hedges swarming with Redstarts ; some had got as far as 

 five miles inland. I saw many other small birds — Whitethroats, 

 Robins, Pied and Spotted Flycatchers, Wheatears, Hedge- 

 sparrows, and a few Blue Tits. When the hedges were beaten, 

 the little birds came out in clouds, the Redstarts being more 

 numerous than all the rest put together. In a hedge at North 

 Cotes I saw an immature Bluethroat ; it came out on a twig 

 within three, feet of my face ; subsequently I shot it, but it fell in 

 thick covert, and probably was only winged, as I searched, with 

 two men, most of the afternoon without success. On the 22nd — 

 fewer Redstarts, but more Robins— Rock Pipits had arrived." On 

 the Spurn side of the Humber large numbers of Redstarts, 

 Wheatears, and others were seen at the same date, and at least 

 one Bluethroat. I see in Mr. J. H. Gurney's "Notes from 

 Norfolk" (p. 401), that on the 21st, "large numbers of Redstarts 



ZOOLOGIST. — DEC. 1892- 3 N 



