MIGRATION AND FLIGHT. 
91 
arrival; but in some instances, circumstances afford us tbe 
means of speaking more positively. Thus, on a well-known 
rocky island, called the South Stack, near Holyhead, the 
Lighthouse keepers assured us that the Gulls, which seldom 
visit the island for two-thirds of the year, arrive on the 
same night, namely, February 10th, for the purpose of 
breeding. They are regularly warned of the arrival of their 
summer guests, about midnight, by a great noise, as it were 
a mutual greeting and cheering ; and from that moment they 
remain till their broods are reared, and the business for which 
they resorted thither entirely at an end. 
The light-keepers spoke with pleasure of the arrival of 
the birds, saying that they looked to their return as that of 
so many old acquaintances after a long absence, announcing 
the spring to be at hand, and the winter to be over and 
gone. 
In alluding to light-keepers, we may mention a curious 
circumstance connected with birds of passage, namely, that 
during their migrations in the night, they frequently fly with 
such force against the strong plate-glass reflectors of light- 
houses, as to be killed on the spot. Instances of this have 
occurred at Flamborough Head, where, we have been in- 
formed, that Ducks, Woodcocks, Starlings, Fieldfares, Red- 
wings, and in short every species of the migratory tribes, have 
fallen victims to the attractive but unintentional decoy. The 
astonishing number of seventeen dozen of Starlings were, at 
the latter end of 1886, picked up near the above-mentioned 
light-house, having been killed, maimed, or stupified by flying 
against the dome of that brilliant light. 
It has been observed that the time of departure of certain 
birds is by no means so exact as that of their arrival ; which 
may be accounted for by a natural disinclination on the part of 
the old ones to desert the nests of young ones still requiring 
their care. But even this most powerful of all instincts, the 
attachment of a parent to its young, is not in all cases strong 
enough to conquer the still stronger impulse for migration ; 
for Swallows will actually desert their nests, and leave help- 
less little ones to perish by hunger, rather than remain long 
