5 § 
SPURN AND ITS BIRDS. 
man with a gun who sits there like a spider in his web until the 
incoming tide begins to hustle the Duck at its edge, making them 
move up and down in small flocks. In hard weather many are 
thus shot, the bulk being Mallard, Widgeon, or Teal. 
The shore of the Point itself is at certain times of the year and 
states of the tide a little paradise of birds. The‘‘Bents” and 
“ Sea Buckthorns ” growing along its middle length may at one 
time be full of Short-eared Owls, at another with Woodcock, 
or again with Warblers. You never know exactly what will turn 
up, and Spurn and its immediate neighbourhood have produced 
many of the rarest species of birds now included in the British 
list. The Macqueen’s Bustard, Rose-coloured Pastor, Sand Grouse, 
Rustic Bunting, Barred Warbler, and a host of other names could 
be given if needful. 
Now these birds are by no means species which would stay with 
us to breed,—here one day and away the next. They appear only 
as accidental lingerers from some migratory movements between 
breeding ground and wintering place, or vice versa. 
Especially perhaps during the months of October and Novem¬ 
ber, wonderful flights take place at Spurn ; the direction of course 
being at such times of year, broadly speaking from North to South, 
modified by circumstances of breeding locality. 
It is on such occasions that the great Spurn lantern, with its 
marvellous revolving beams of light, acts for hundreds of feathered 
wanderers as a landmark in their flight. But observe this: if the 
weather at such time be foggy and drizzling, it often happens that 
the landmarks can only be seen by the birds when the)' fly low, 
and in doing so, such is their speed of wing that when they catch 
sight of the revolving beams it is too late perhaps to do more than 
swerve upwards, in which case they crash into the metal dome 
above, or if downwards on to the unyielding masonry, and in either 
case break their necks. 
I have known too, when thousands of birds have hovered, 
screaming and twittering round the lantern at dead of night like a 
swarm of bees, unable to resist the attractive light, and at such a 
time I have stood on the gallery of the lantern and caught the 
llutterers in my hand and flung them off in the darkness out of 
harm's way. Sometimes when the conditions are exactly favour¬ 
able to such an event, great mortality occurs. On the night just 
mentioned there were 70 birds counted when the tale was told next 
morning—the verdict in every case being “ accidental death.” If 
