198 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



the aggregate, enormous, but large as they seem, they are 

 very considerably less than they were thirty to thirty-five 

 years ago. I have still a note made so long since as 

 October of 1866 of small flocks of Lapwings, passing down 

 Nithsdale for the whole of two consecutive days. Nothing 

 of that extensive character is ever seen nowadays. A 

 steady migration of the species southwards will last, at most, 

 for only an afternoon. Now and again the passing of a 

 huge flock may be noted. One such that I saw in October 

 1900 literally filled a seven -acre field, and by an easy 

 calculation was estimated to comprise at least 50,000 birds. 

 The subdued murmuring voice of such an immense as- 

 semblage was wonderful, in the rising and falling sounds 

 of its undertones, and was audible at nearly 300 yards 

 distant. None of the other Waders is so conspicuous 

 during the autumnal migration as the Lapwing. 



Some of the early October nights are fairly vocal with 

 the calls of passing migrants, amongst which Curlews, 

 Sea-pies, Redshanks, Golden Plover, and Dunlin are always 

 largely represented. 



There is nothing strikes the listener so much as he 

 strains his ears to hear, and distinguish the myriad calls 

 that float down to him on a quiet autumn night, as his 

 utter inability to identify more than one-third to one-half 

 of these voices. Since boyhood I have heard the calls of 

 almost every bird that nests or sojourns in Solway, and 

 amongst those who read these lines are many whose 

 experience is far greater and more extended than mine. 

 But let any of us listen to the calls that come down to 

 earth when a really big migration movement is in progress 

 during the darkness of night, and there is not one of us 

 but will be confounded and humiliated to find that a very 

 large proportion of the sounds cannot be assigned to any 

 known species with certainty. Of course the explanation 

 lies in the fact that birds when on migration use notes that 

 are not required at other periods of their lives. We know 

 their notes when feeding, courting, nesting, and roosting, 

 because we have all seen and watched and listened to 

 them at these times. Migration being for the most part 

 carried on high above our heads, and after nightfall, we fail 



