1914.] REPORTS. 123 



Report of the Ornithological Section, 1014. 



In last year's Ornithological Report I referred to the 

 experiments inaugurated at the St. Catherine's and Casquets 

 lighthouses with a view to protecting birds during the great 

 spring and autumn migrations. Attracted by the powerful 

 light the birds are irresistibly drawn to it, and thousands lose 

 their life in consequence. Unable in the darkness of night to 

 resist the magnetic influence of the dazzling spot of brightness 

 ahead of them, they fly towards it and, circling round and 

 round the lantern, finally drop exhausted into the water or 

 unto the rocks below. 



The idea of the Dutch ornithologist Thijsse that much of 

 this terrible sacrifice of bird-life might be avoided by the 

 construction of perches round the lighthouse lantern and 

 platform for the little tired-out travellers to rest upon has 

 been justified in fact. It was the success of experiments 

 carried on in this direction on the coast of Holland that 

 decided the Elder Brethren of Trinity House, when ap- 

 proached by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 

 to sanction the erection of perches on some of the English 

 lighthouses. That at St. Catherine's in the Isle of Wight, 

 and the Casquets off Alderney were selected for experiments 

 in 1913, while this summer the South Bishop Lighthouse, off 

 Pembrokeshire, South Wales, has also been fitted with rests. 



And what are the results ? In the Summer Number, 

 1914, of Bird Notes and News, in an article entitled "Round 

 the Lighthouse Lantern," we read that " . . . the reports 

 received at the end of 1913 were satisfactory. The keepers 

 stated that large numbers of birds had settled on the rests on 

 many nights, and expressed the opinion that the lives of con- 

 siderable numbers must be saved because they did, undoubtedly, 

 as Mr. Thijsse had said, flutter round about the light, and 

 when they found the perches, would remain on them until 

 dawn." 



The opinion of the Head Keeper at the Casquets is 

 given as follows in the Winter Number, 1913, of Bird Notes 

 and News : — 



" During the last few days of August [1913] large 

 flights of birds were passing the station, and during the 

 night a large number of small birds settled on the perches. 

 On most nights in October a few birds settled, and on the 

 night of October 25 the perches were completely covered 

 with starlings." 

 Personally I think it extremely interesting that the 

 Casquets light should have been selected as one of the first 



