66 REPORT ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



Casquets, ^Yhich is a revolving light, the larger hirds follow the 



rays, but do not often strike the glass. 



With such favourable passages as light head winds afford, 



our immigrants are so little fatigued that they will not alight on 



reaching land, but keep on their course into the interior. I have 



watched for hours flock after flock arriving on the east coast, 



coming directly from westward, Eooks, Starlings, Lapwings, and 



Snow Buntings, and keeping on in a direct westerly direction as 



far as the eye or a good glass were able to follow. Often, too, 



when on the hills, miles from the sea, I have seen migrating 



flocks passing inland. Larks in straggling flocks, carrolling 



cheerily as they pass ; there is no bird which migrates so 



cheerily and light-heartedly as the Lark, ever ready to burst into 



song on the least occasion. At other times, with adverse winds, 



I have watched migrants scarce able to struggle on shore dropping 



in the first shelter, or even on the bare wind-swept coast. At 



Lynn Well light-vessel large numbers of migrants passed day 



by day, and for the entire day, during October, from S.E. 



or S.S.E., and even S. to N.W. From the position of this 



station off Lynn Deeps at the bottom of the Wash, under 



the shelter of the north-westerly trend of the coast, these 



migrants must have first crossed the northern part of the 



county of Norfolk, without alighting, on their way to the fens of 



Lincolnshire and Cambridge, and this both by day and night. 



'* Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, 

 Though the dark night is near." 



It is very remarkable how suddenly the stream of migration 

 commences running, and how suddenly it stops again. We 

 watch, at early morning, a flock of Larks or Hooded Crows come 

 to land ; others soon follow, and then for some hours — it may be 

 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. — there is a constant arrival of migrants ; 

 and then migration, at least for that day, is over, and not a single 

 wanderer will be seen. 



As a rule, the young of the year migrate some weeks in 

 advance of the old birds ; this holds good with all orders and 

 species. In the spring the males often migrate in advance of 

 the females. 



The time of migration of any particular species extends over 

 a considerable period ; sometimes it is over in four or five weeks, 

 in other cases going on for months, and even half a year ; for. 



