Compared with the autumn notes on migration, the spring reports are very meagre, and few and far between. This is probably due to the fact that in the spring birds migrate, with rare exceptions, at night; and, as the weather is then finer, and the nights clearer and shorter, they do not run their heads so much against the lanterns of lighthouses and lightships. The spring migration is also carried on much more leisurely, migrants proceeding by easy stages northward, and we have none of those great rushes which are so characteristic of the autumn migration, when, with sudden changes of weather, flock after flock pour continually during the whole day and night on to our east coast. In the spring also the males of the Insessores migrate some time in advance of the females, as is very clearly shown in the Heligoland notes, as well as by the well-known arrival of our summer immigrants, as the Nightingale, Whitethroat, &c. The notes on spring migration taken in 1879, as well as in 1880, seem to point to the conclusion that, during the vernal migration, migrants strike the lanterns of lighthouses from 11 p.m. to the dawn of day, the majority after midnight; and not in the early hours of night, as is the case in the autumn.
AUTUMN MIGRATION, 1880.
SEPARATE REPORT ON EACH SPECIES.
White-tailed Eagle, Haliæetus albicilla.—At Heligoland, Sept. 10th, S.S.E., windy, eight or ten.
Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus.—At Heligoland, Oct. 24th, "all latter time and F. æsalon, scattered." As in every autumn a few on passage have been recorded in the eastern counties; one, an immature male, was shot near Spurn on Jan. 1st, 1881.
Hobby, Falco subbuteo.—At Heligoland, June 19th and 20th, S.E., some.
Kestrel, Falco tinnunculus.—At Heligoland, Sept. 25th, S., very little wind, a great many, few old.
Sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus.—At Heligoland, enormous numbers crossed in the autumn, commencing Aug. 7th, eight or ten young birds; from thence to Sept. 18th, almost daily in greater or less numbers, all young birds. Sept. 29th, evening, the first old birds. Oct. 9th, young interspersed with old; 20th, many; 28th, still daily. An enormous majority of these must pass down the European coast, as the notices on our east coast are few and far between. At the Outer Dowsing L.V., Oct. 8th, one at sunset flying round lantern. At Leman and Ower L.V., Oct. 6th, 4.30 p.m., one to S.E. At Corton, L.V., Oct. 9th, one settled on ship. At Heligoland, Mr. Gätke says Sparrowhawks often arrive towards evening.
Common Buzzard, Buteo vulgaris.—At Heligoland, Sept. 18th, many.
Honey Buzzard, Pernis apivorus.—At Heligoland, Sept. 10th, with Sparrowhawks.