CORDEAUX—MIGRATION OF BIRDS IN THE AUTUMN AND WINTER OF 1877"78. 159 
severe weather, frost and snow, lasting only a few days. The effect of these 
rapid variations of temperature has been to drive the laggards in the north 
southward, not gradually, but as it were, in sudden rushes, corresponding 
with the outbreaks of bad weather in the north. There was one such rush 
on October 27th. A correspondent writing from one of the floating light¬ 
ships at the mouth of the Tees says :—“27th, strong breeze and cloudy; 
barometer at noon 29‘GO in., thermometer 58°. Two woodcocks and great 
many crows this day; large flocks of lapwings came in from east all day, 
also large flocks of wild ducks and a great variety of other small birds. They 
appear to come in from ESE. I never observed so many birds come over in 
one day before.” 
Again, Mr. Giitke, writing from Heligoland, November 14tli, says:—“Wind 
SW, but moderate, and although cloudy, there is no rain. During the night 
there was a great rush of thrushes, larks, lapwings, robins, and fire-crested 
wrens (both Eeguli), intermixed with lots of other birds. . . . What 
do we read out of this ? That there is in the north an appearance of winter 
driving off the migranes helter-skelter.” 
Again, I may instance the great rush of fieldfares over Heligoland on the 
nights of January 27th and 28tli. 
At the same time Mr. Giitke sends the following note:—“ Colymbus 
septentrionalis , 29th January, from 9 a.m. and earlier to 4 p.m., an unin¬ 
terrupted stream of birds from NNE to SSW, passing to the east of this 
island, constantly from eight to twelve in focus of glass.” 
This extraordinary rush of red-throated divers, coming doubtless from 
Scandinavian waters, w r as caused by the same outburst of severe weather 
which drove the fieldfares southward on the nights of the 27th and 28tli. 
We had in England some severe weather from the 23rd to the 27th of 
January coming from the WNW and NW, frost and snow. 
The red-throated divers may have delayed their movements southward in 
consequence of the unfrozen state of the Scandinavian fiords. Another 
reason causing the stay of these and other large divers in the north, may have 
been the extraordinary influx of herrings into the Kattegatt, and from thence 
into the fiords. This is more remarkable when we consider that the herring 
fishery has been practically extinct on this coast through the disappearance 
of the fish since the year 1808. 
Fear of trespassing on valuable space induces me to bring these remarks 
to a conclusion. I think, however, enough has been said to show the 
abnormal character of the season, with reference to the autumnal migration 
of birds from the north of Europe to the south. 
