10 THI? CONDOR VoL XX against the lantern until they fall from exhaustion. A number of correspond- eats speak of -finding birds with necks broken and breast bones crushed, show- ing that they had struck some solid object with great violence. It is quite evi- dent that the placing of perches on most of the lighthouses of this coast would be time and money wasted. Not many birds are killed at most of them and the birds killed are not perching birds for the most part. IV. The greatest danger to the birds is evidently on dark overcast nights. The seasons of greatest danger are evidently during the spring migration and the autumnal migration, with less danger during the winter season and least of Fig. 3. Lighthouse a? Hueheine, Ventura County, California. The low-built type of lighthouse which causes but slight destruction of birds, this par- tic .?lar sta. tion reporting only four birds found dead in three years.
- Courtesy of the Lighthouse Service, U.S.
Dept. Cornrneree. all in summer. There?i"? considerable 'difference of opinion as to the time of greatest mortality but on the whole the statement above seems to be in accord with the majority of the correspondents. V. In the opinion of the lighthouse keepers the destruction of birds at the lighthouse stations is not increasing. Seventy-five percent of those answering the question think the number of birds killed is growing less; the others think there is no noticeable change. ?a.n Fra.nc?sco, California, Norember 2, 1917.
