126 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



The arrangement of them is simple enough, and it is hoped that in 

 time they may develop useful results. 



To many kind correspondents — far too numerous to mention in 

 this place — I desire to offer my best thanks. 



I may add here that it is my intention to keep notes from this date 

 onward of a similar nature, and I will be glad at any time to receive 

 the smallest contributions for future reports on Mammals or Birds. 

 I earnestly solicit the co-operation of all members and others who 

 desire to see an annual and full report on this subject compressed 

 into the space of one paper. 



I. — Migration of the Autumn of 1878. 



All accounts agree in recording the unusually early and rapid 

 migration of birds during the autumn of 1878. They appeared 

 upon the Sound of Iona, in Mull, fully a month earlier than usual — 

 except Woodcocks, which arrived, as usual, about the 12th October. 

 Snipe were extremely abundant in many localities. Here, in 

 Stirlingshire, I never saw more than we had in the end of 

 September up to middle of November ; but from various localities 

 an unusual scarcity of the Jack Snipe is recorded. I never saw 

 fewer of the latter here. The very dry summer of 1878 sufficiently 

 accounts for the crowding of our marshes with the common species, 

 and the rapidly approaching winter, probably, for the scarcity of 

 the Jack Snipe. 



Mr. W. Boyd writes to me regarding the migration in Mull :- — 

 " In the month of October I was tishing on Loch Assapol, near 

 Bunessan. Almost every day I saw flock after flock of little birds — 

 Larks, Buntings, Robins, and even Wrens — flying across the loch. 

 All these birds were steering the same course, having apparently 

 come from the outlying Hebrides, via Tyree, Iona, up the Boss of 

 Mull, and were steering for the mainland. Fresh arrivals of 

 different kinds of Duck rested, and then passed on. Wild Geese 

 and Swans were seen far up in the air, all taking a bee-line for 

 the South." 



Larks, Buntings, Ilobins, and Wrens are all common in the 

 Outer Hebrides. Therefore these flights observed by Mr. Boyd 

 in all probability had their starting-point in the Long Island. 

 They steered the same course — a south-easterly one — which Wild 

 Geese and Swans were seen to take high up in air. But that all 



