6 A CENTURY’S WORK ON ORNITHOLOGY 
These records are very interesting. The flocks of Cross- 
bills occurred at the Moult and also at Widdicombe. The 
Kite was shot near Loddiswell. A farmer proceeding to 
church one Sunday morning saw this bird feeding on the 
carcass of a sheep; instead of carrying his first intention 
into effect, he returned for his gun and shot the bird. On 
the night of May 11th, 1861, the keeper on duty at the Start 
Lighthouse was surprised at discovering a great number of 
birds flying around and against the lantern of that building, 
and dropping either dead or much exhausted. The wind at 
the time was blowing strong from the north-east, with rain ; 
after some time it became much calmer, the birds continuing 
to rush against the lantern, increasing in numbers as the 
gale went down, and finally reaching the immense number 
of six hundred and ninety-two; and he had the curiosity to 
weich them, and they amounted to about thirty-four pounds, 
consisting chiefly of Skylarks, House Sparrows, and several 
varieties of the smaller kinds of birds, amongst which was a 
Cuckoo. This may have been the back-wash of a late wave 
of migration swept out to sea, in which the Sparrows had 
been caught up, they not being a migratory species. These 
rushes of panic-stricken or exhausted birds are happily 
becoming much rarer, as the lights are rapidly being changed 
from the fixed light to one of a revolving or occulting 
character, the attraction of a flashing light not being so 
great, apparently, as that of a fixed one. 
The summer of 1863 witnessed an irruption of Pallas’s 
Sand Grouse over the whole of Europe; a flock occurred 
at Slapton Sands, and specimens were secured. The periodic 
flights of this Grouse from their home in Eastern Tartary 
and China present one of the most interesting problems 
connected with bird life, the real reasons which induce such 
being still in doubt. In 1888 a still greater number arrived, 
in flocks numbering thousands, but none occurred here. 
The Crane frequented a large grass field near the Start 
for some days; it kept the middle of the field, and defied 
all efforts to shoot it. We get no record of the Little 
Bustard, Osprey, or Hobby after this decade. 
From 1870 to 1880 we find recorded: Rufous Warbler, 
Blue-headed Wagtail, Rose-coloured Pastor, Hoopoe, Short- 
eared Owls (great flight in 1876), Little Bittern, Night 
Heron, Bewick’s Swan, Green- winged Teal, White - eyed 
Duck, Smew, Little Tern, Curlew Sandpiper, Black-tailed 
Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Pomatorhine Skua (great flight 
1879), Richardson’s Skua, Leach’s Petrel. 
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