REPORT ON SCOTTISH ORNITHOLOGY FOR 1906 131 



information which has resulted from Mr. Eagle Clarke's in- 

 vestigation of the avi-fauna of Fair Isle, especially at the 

 period of the autumn passage. No particular reference can 

 be made here to the details of this inquiry, as they have 

 already appeared in full in an earlier number of this year's 

 " Annals " (pp. 66-80). But the report would be incom- 

 plete without references to the important results obtained, 

 and they are consequently briefly mentioned in their natural 

 place under species. 



During the spring passage the comparatively favour- 

 able conditions which obtained till mid-April were then 

 interrupted by a period of cold and wet weather, which 

 unhappily continued until the end of May. As a result 

 of this unfavourable change at a critical period for the 

 appearance of one of the most satisfactory to observe of all 

 our visitors the Willow-Wren, we find its appearance in 

 numbers later by a week or ten days than in the two pre- 

 ceding years. 



The phenomena of the autumn passage would alone 

 lend the year distinction however. The first great rush of 

 the season was on the 2Oth and 2ist September, when 

 thousands of Meadow Pipits appeared at Skerryvore with 

 a S.E. wind, and among other species a Yellow-browed 

 Warbler. This synchronised to a day with the appearance 

 of the Red-breasted Flycatchers, Arctic Bluethroats, and 

 Yellow-browed Warblers at the Fair Isle, but the movement 

 does not seem to have been observed on our coasts generally. 

 Between 5th and loth October a rush of a "very unusual 

 and extensive kind " was noted at Lerwick, the call of the 

 Redwing being distinguishable, and this species supplies 

 the dominant note of the great October movement of 1906. 

 It was by the loth October numerous at Spiggie, in numbers 

 all over the island at the Pentland Skerries, while a flock is 

 reported on the same date at Sule Skerry. This movement 

 seems to have been confined to the extreme northern group 

 of localities, but a different story falls to be told of that 

 which took place ten clays later. On the ipth October 

 " very large numbers " are reported from Kirkliston, on the 

 2Oth "immense flocks" at Spiggie, and on the 2 1st at the 

 Bell Rock, thousands are reported, many being killed ; a 



