92 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



ringed as nestlings and recovered in winter, and although he 

 wisely refrains from drawing any conclusions, owing to paucity 

 of material, one or two interesting points are indicated. Severe 

 weather is suggested as a reason for some of the movements of 

 these partial migrants from Britain, but here again lack of 

 material prevents any positive statement being made. One point 

 which we think worthy of notice is the number of birds ringed in 

 Scotland, as nestlings, and recovered in Ireland; far more seem to 

 leave this country for Ireland than is the case in England. This is 

 specially striking in the case of the Lapwing, fourteen Scottish birds 

 being recovered there, and only five English ones. Of the Song- 

 thrushes ringed in Britain exactly half of those recovered were 

 found at home and half abroad. The proportion of Blackbirds 

 which left the country is smaller, being only 28 per cent, of the 

 recoveries. In both these species, birds ringed as nestlings were 

 recovered the next summer at, or near, the place of their birth. In 

 the Lapwings recovered 57 per cent, of those ringed in England left 

 the country compared with 82 per cent, of the Scottish birds. Of 

 this species and the Woodcock, Ireland would appear to be the 

 commonest wintering-place. 



Migration in Banffshire. An interesting migration move- 

 ment was observed here on 20th December 1916; it was, no doubt, 

 occasioned by weather, as it occurred during our first spell of really 

 wintry weather. Along the shore, an irregular stream of birds was 

 seen coming over the cliffs from the east, and flying out over the 

 sea to the west towards Portknockie, thus taking a short cut across 

 the bay. The greater number of the birds were Fieldfares ; others, 

 smaller, were probably Redwings ; one Blackbird flew near enough 

 for identification, and a number of Song-thrushes were hopping 

 about on the braes, and some on the rocks, where as a rule there are 

 none, at this season. There were several small flocks of Starlings, 

 of twenty or so, and a few Skylarks later a large flock of Skylarks, 

 about seventy, passed over, and an equally large flock of Snow- 

 buntings : the last-named did not fly out over the sea. There were 

 three small parties of Wood-pigeons of from five to ten, two 

 Golden Plovers, and a dozen or so Curlews straggling along at a 

 lower level over the sea beyond the rocks. These all passed 

 during a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, between noon 

 and 12.30. Next day there was nothing more to be seen, and 

 the Song-thrushes on the braes had gone, only two remaining, 

 and at Portknockie only three Song-thrushes and one Fieldfare 



