A FATAL FASCINATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2206, 11 June 1896, Page 50

A FATAL FASCINATION.

A new source of danger to birds on migration is the fatal attraction of lighthouses and light- vessels. Fatal as theprovwbial candle to the iaßcinated moth, these gleaming beacon* on our coasts prove the death of -uncounted birds each season of passage. On clear nights the birds, fortunately, rarely visit these fatal lanterns, but en dark, cloudy, and foggy nights the mortality ia bigh. It is also a curious fact that fixed white lights are more deadly than revolving or coloured ones ; and it has also been remarked that after tbe erection of a foghorn ihe light has cowed to attract birds to their

doom. Odd hirds irom time to time dash themselveß against the glass of the lanterns throughout the months that the migration of birds is in progress, but occasionally vast Sights appear at the .beacons, and some of the scenes then witnessed are interesting and fascinating in the extreme. Here are .one or .two reports from lighthouses and veEsels : — At the Bell Bock the keepers reported : "What we think ware woodcocks struck with great force. Birds continued firing within the influence of the rajs of light till the first streak of day, continually striking hard all night, and falling into the sea." And again : "Birds began to arrive at 7.30, striking lightly and flying, off again. The numbers went on increasing till midnight, when a vast flock swarmed in the rays of the light, and, striking hard, fell on tbe. balcony dead, or rebounded ~off, falling into the sea. At 3 a.m. another flock arrived, crowded on the lantern window*, trying to force their way to the light. The noisabaffl >d description. The birds were in thousands." Fjora ihe Galloper light vessel, moored some 50 miles off the mouth of tbs Thames, it was reported that on one October night from 500 to 600 birds struck .the rigging and fell into the sea; that thousands of birds were flying xouod the lantern from midnight to «arly morning, their white breasts, as they dashed to and fro in the circle of light, having the appearance of a heavy fall of snow. Another night 160 birds were picked up on deck, and it was computed that quite another thousand went ovei board. At tha Tuskar Rock lighthouse, ofi Wexford, 1200 .birds were counted killed in a single night, ,and hundreds more fell into the eea ! The terrific force with which some of these birds strike the lanterns is almo&t incredible. Woodcocks have been known to break glass three-eighths of an inch in thickness, whilst on another occasion a flock of ducks shattered

into small pieces glass a quarter of an inch thick.

The enormous numbers of these migrating birds are almost past belief, especially in autumn, when the young swell the ranks of the travellers so largely. Night and day the tush* of birds passing north, or south, east or west, according to season, is simply prodigious. This is especially remarkable in such epecies as goldcrests, starlings, and skylarks. Vast waves of the first-named species — the smallest of British birds — sometimes spread' westwards for days and nights in succession. In 1882 a somewhat exceptional migration of this bird to tbe British Islands took place, extending over a period of 92 days. This vast wave of bird-life was at least 900 miles in breadth ; not only was tbe goldorest observed in swarms all along our eastern coasts, but Ganke records them from Heligoland in what he describes as a perfect storm, " perching on the ledges of tbe window panes of tbe lantern of our lighthouse, preening their feathers in the glare of the lamps; all the island .swarming with them, filling the gardens and the cliffs — hundreds of thousands." The hosts of starlings and ekylarka are even more remarkable. These birds cross the North Sea each year literally in millions. For days and days together flock after flock in unbroken succession, and numberless as the snnds of the shore, speed onwaids in astounding boßts ; f qtiare miles of birds like flakes of snow in a drifting storm 1 Many other birds migrate in such companies as literally to darken the f-kies ; but, on the other hand, there are many more that seem to journey in smaller flocks, or even alone. — Leisure Hour.