NOTES 



283 



NOTES. 



Movements of Migratory Birds observed in Kirkcud- 

 brightshire. On the evening of 27th October there must have 

 been a considerable migration of Starlings over this district. 

 Numbers of them came into the house after dark, and some of them 

 spent the night indoors and were released in the morning. The 

 house stands by itself on the hill of Cairnsmore, and has on three 

 occasions within the last few years attracted migrants in the same 

 way. On the other occasions the visitors were Yellow-buntings on 

 23rd and 25th November. The night was very dark and wet, and 

 the wind S.S.E., the conditions in fact were typical of those favour- 

 able for observing birds on migration at a lighthouse. 



A very marked increase in the number of Wood-pigeons was 

 noticed during the following days, and hundreds of the birds came 

 to roost in the fir woods at dark. Though I have lived here for 

 twenty-five years, I have never seen anything approaching the 

 number. 



On the night of 2nd November we had a great rush of Green- 

 finches between 9 and 9.30 p.m. Several of them came indoors. 

 The weather conditions were the same as before, a typical "lantern" 

 night. M. Bedford, Cairnsmore, Palnure. 



Song of the Willow-tit. In a recent number of British 

 Birds (vol. vii., p. 116), Mr T. A. Ewart describes the song of the 

 Willow-tit as "similar to, but softer than, that of the Marsh-tit." 

 As this is at variance with the experience of Mr C. J. Alexander, 

 who considers the songs of the two species to be essentially distinct 

 (British Birds, iv., 146), it may perhaps be worth while to give my 

 experience as regards the former species in West Lothian the 

 more as the song does not appear to be at all well known in 

 Scotland. Although fairly widely distributed in the country, the 

 bird is local, and its song appears to be somewhat infrequently 

 uttered. I have, however, noted it in a few instances during the 

 spring and early summer months. On the first occasion of hearing 

 it, I noted it down on the spot as a single note, repeated in a loud, 

 clear tone some five or six times in succession. It might be written 

 " tew-tew-tew-tew-tew," and has, perhaps, some resemblance to a 

 common song-note of the Wood-wren. This description is very 

 near that of Mr Alexander's Marsh-tit "a loud, clear 

 note repeated about seven times," and is totally unlike the " rich 

 Nightingale-like notes" ascribed by the same writer to the Willow- 



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