East coast of England. 31 



which approach the Humber about that period. At the Long- 

 stone L.H., April 29th, W., weather fine, first Sandwich Tern seen, 

 and the last seen Sept. 8th. The Arctic Tern was first seen 

 May 10th; last, Sept. 14th. At the Fame Inner l.h.. Sandwich 

 Terns were seen on May 12th, and the Arctic May 15th, both 

 species leaving together on Aug. 28th. The Siberian Herring 

 Gull, Larus affinis, was seen at Heligoland on June 5th, and the 

 Caspian Tern, Sterna Caspia, on the 22nd, the first Mr. Gatke 

 has got there. July 23rd, repeatedly seen. 



GENEKAL SUMMARY SPRING MIGRATION. 



Compared with the autumn notes on migration, the spring 

 reports are very meagre, and few and far between. This is 

 probably due to the fact that in the spring birds migrate, with 

 rare exceptions, at night ; and, as the weather is then finer, and 

 the nights clearer and shorter, they do not run their heads so 

 much against the lanterns of lighthouses and lightships. The 

 spring migration is also carried on much more leisurely, migrants 

 proceeding by easy stages northward, and we have none of those 

 great rushes which are so characteristic of the autumn migration, 

 when, with sudden changes of weather, flock after flock pour 

 continually during the whole day and night on to our east coast. 

 In the spring also the males of the Insessores migrate some time 

 in advance of the females, as is very clearly shown in the 

 Heligoland notes, as well as by the well-known arrival of our 

 summer immigrants, as the Nightingale, Whitethroat, &c. The 

 notes on spring migration taken in 1879, as well as in 1880, seem 

 to point to the conclusion that, during the vernal migration, 

 migrants strike the lanterns of lighthouses from 11 p.m. to the 

 dawn of day, the majority after midnight ; and not in the early 

 hours of night, as is the case in the autumn. 



AUTUMN MIGEATION, 1880. 



SEPARATE REPORT ON EACH SPECIES. 



White-tailed Eagle, Haliceetus alhicilla. — At Heligoland, 

 Sept. 10th, S.S.E., windy, eight or ten. 



Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus. — At Heligoland, Oct. 

 24th, '' all latter time and F, cesalon, scattered." As in every 

 autumn a few on passage have been recorded in the eastern 



