128 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



to a north-east origin.* I have been able also to trace the Tyree 

 flock of Swans as having in all probability passed over North 

 Uist ; and a later one from localities nearer home — the north of 

 Scotland and the Orkney Islands. Local migrations, caused by 

 the severity of the winter, were observable also on our east coast. 

 Grouse were seen crossing the Moray Firth in December and 

 January, flying southward. The inclination of migrations seems 

 to be to reach first the coast lines or great valleys, and then to 

 follow them ; and this is especially noticeable in the autumn 

 migration, when all our estuaries are crowded with Dunlins and 

 Waders, but many of these same estuaries deserted by them during 

 their more direct progress in spring. Mull being the nearest 

 (southward) land to Tyree, the birds would make direct for it, and. 

 according to the local winds, would hug the shelter of the land or 

 head their flight across the promontories. 



On the Solway Firth early notice of the coming winter was 

 afforded by the arrival of vast numbers of wild fowl, and towards 

 the end of the storm their numbers exceeded anything within the 

 memory of the oldest fishermen (R. Service, Dumfries Courier, 

 25th March, 1879). Unusual numbers of sea-fowl were seen upon 

 the Irish coasts also, as I am informed by Mr. Robert Warren, 

 and so with numerous other localities. 



Herr Gaetke, the well-known naturalist of the " Little Red 

 Rock in the Sea " — Heligoland — that wonderful resting-place of 

 vast multitudes of migratory birds, has reported that while in 

 ordinary seasons the autumn migration of birds often continues 

 until the end of February — until, in fact, it is almost time for them 

 to return again — in the autumn of 1878 every migratory bird had 

 sped past by the end of November (fide J. Cordeaux, in Zoologist, 

 quoting Gaetke). 



Mr. Stevenson writes from Norwich on the 11th January, 1879: 

 — " No rare birds have been killed. The storm began too early, 

 and all the rare things went further south." Mr. Robert Warren, 

 of Mayview, Ballina, Ireland, reports similarly. He says : — " 1 

 did not meet with a rare northern bird, not even an Iceland nor a 



h Subsequent experience in 1879-80, however, causes this statement to 

 be modified, as large numbers of Bewick's Swan — and possibly of the 

 doubtful species, C. americanus — occurred on the west coast, at Islay and 

 elsewhere. A fuller account of these will be given in our lleport for 

 1879-80. 



