292 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



As my last Report said would be the case, the immigration of 

 birds upon our coasts in the autumn of 1879 has received special 

 attention, and a report founded upon the schedules returned from 

 the various lighthouses upon the Scottish coasts, and east coast of 

 England, has been prepared by Mr. John Cordeaux and myself, 

 and has appeared in extenso in the May number of the 

 Zoologist. It should be read by those who are interested in the 

 results of our first year's observations in conjunction with this 

 Report. I may mention, however, that an unusual scarcity of 

 wading birds upon the estuaries of the east coast has been very 

 generally commented upon by my correspondents, and the returned 

 reports of the Lighthouse-keepers fully bear out this scarcity of im- 

 migrants — both Waders and other birds — on our Scottish coasts, 

 whilst unusual abundance has been observed upon the English east 

 coast, south of the Humber, passing the lightships or crowding the 

 shores. The prevalence of N.W. winds at the time of migration is 

 probably the first cause in this scarcity, assisted to no inconsider- 

 able extent by the disastrous loss of bird-life in the severe winter 

 of 1878-79 ; and also the late spring, which retarded the vernal 

 migration in 1879. Two other somewhat unusual phenomena 

 were, the irruption of Skua-gulls upon our coasts,* and the large 

 numbers of Whimbrels on the east coast, where these birds are 

 usually very scarce. 



Journal of the Winter of 1879-80. 



On October 4th, 1879, my friend, Mr. W. Horn, saw a little 

 snow in Aberdeenshire. On 14th October he and I walked over 

 from Glen Queich to Remony, on Loch Tay, through a snow-storm. 

 This snow lay all the 15th and 16th on the higher Perthshire hills. 

 On the 15th there was \ inch of ice on the small pools on the 



* Mr. J. J. Dalgleish has, since the above was first written, communicated 

 to this Society a paper " On the Skuas, particularly with reference to the 

 recent occurrence of the Pomatorhine Skua (Stercorarius pomatorhinus) on the 

 coasts of Scotland in unusual numbers," read 27th April, 1SS0 [ci7itea, p. 274] : 

 aud Mr. H. Stevenson has contributed a paper ' ' On the abundance of Poma- 

 torhine and smaller Skuas on the Norfolk Coast, in October and November, 

 1879" {Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc, vol. iii., part 1, p. 99), both of 

 which should be read carefully by those specially interested. Eeferences 

 to numerous other notices of the occurrences of Skuas on our coasts will be 

 found in these papers, as well as to the more complete treatment of the 

 subject by Mr. Howard Saunders {P.Z.S., 1876, p. 320). {Field, Jan. 17th, 

 18S0, and Zoologist, March, 1880.) 



