NATURE NOTES. 
1 68 
flycatchers and warblers continue their migration, and towards 
the end of the month, and through July, old birds, such as 
starlings, or thrushes, may be seen occasionally flying aimlessly 
about, these being individuals whose nests and broods have been 
destroyed, or who have lost their mates, and find it too late to 
begin over again. Towards the end of June, however, is the 
first indication of the reflux migration wave, in the companies of 
young starlings, which daily increase, until, in July, they reach 
their thousands. 
In July the interest increases, and considerable numbers of 
young birds swell the list of migrants. In addition to young 
starlings, there are young lapwings and golden and ringed 
plovers, and redshanks ; old cuckoos, too, take their way again, 
and the guillemots conduct their young out to sea. Young 
sparrows (sparrows, as before remarked, breed on this inhospi- 
table island !) disappear. 
With August the full tide of migration sets in. Snipes and 
plovers pass over the island in great flocks the night through, 
and if at the end of August the weather be warm and clear, with 
a light south-east or south rvind, there come young flycatchers, 
warblers, redstarts and wagtails innumerable. The wryneck 
breaks his journey to refresh himself on ants, the young cuckoos 
stop to seek for caterpillars ; swifts, in large noisy flocks pass 
over, and crowds of crossbills are seen at intervals. These last- 
named birds are, singularly enough, always seen in wet or 
stormy weather, and many young sparrow-hawks and other birds 
of prey are seen towards the close of this month. 
In September the numbers of the August migrants reach a 
climax, especially if the first fortnight of the month be fine. 
The swallows now pass through in great companies. Wagtails 
of different kinds appear in large numbers, but mostly young 
birds. Towards the middle of the month the fly-catchers 
decrease in numbers, while redstarts and willow wrens increase. 
Towards the end of the month thrushes and chaffinches com- 
mence their migration, and old birds of prey in solitar}^ examples 
are seen. 
But as the spring migration reaches a climax in May, thus 
the autumn migration culminates in October, and is a yet more 
wonderful phenomenon. Hooded crows, the month through, 
travel in never-ending swarms of hundreds and thousands over 
the islands, and masses of starlings. In fine Aveather, early in 
the month, in the early morning, thrushes come in swarms, and 
the number of skylarks defies computation. Clouds of chaffinches 
may be seen, and chiff-chaffs, redbreasts, Avhitethroats, hedge- 
sparrows, bramblings, titmice, &c., make their appearance in 
greater or less flights, according to the weather. The scene 
from the lighthouse must be one of extraordinary weirdness and 
grandeur. The author thus describes it : — “ The darkness, 
equall}'^ dense on all sides, amid which the lighthouse appears to 
float like some great luminous body, the broad beams which 
