SOME RARE AND INTERESTING MIGRATORY BIRDS 



ON SOME RARE AND INTERESTING MIGRA- 

 TORY BIRDS OBSERVED AT THE ORCADIAN 

 ISLAND OF AUSKERRY IN THE AUTUMN 

 OF 191 3. 



By William Eagle Clarke. 



Many excellent contributions have been made to our 

 knowledge of bird-migration in the Orkneys, thanks to 

 the labours of a number of light-keepers, but little attention 

 has been paid by ornithologists to the bird-life of the islands 

 during the seasons of the great passage movements. Yet 

 the Orcades afford observing stations of first-rank importance 

 for witnessing the phenomena. These two sets of facts 

 led me to select Auskerry as the scene for the prosecution 

 of my investigations in the autumn of 1913. 



Auskerry, as I have stated in a previous contribution 

 devoted to the occurrence of the Dusky Willow-warbler, is 

 a small uninhabited island of some 260 acres, and is one 

 of the most easterly of the Archipelago. To this I would 

 add that it is low-lying, rising only to 60 feet above sea- 

 level at the summit of the cliffs which form its western 

 rampart against the fierce tides that rush around it. The 

 interior of the island is barren, inasmuch as it is clad with 

 short heather and grass, and affords little shelter or food 

 for passage migrants. The chief resorts of birds visiting 

 Auskerry are the lighthouse garden, the face of the cliffs 

 on the west, and a few patches of nettles which are to be 

 found above high-water mark on the low ground fringing 

 the south, east, and north sides of the isle. In spite of 

 this lack of suitable cover, Auskerry is much resorted 

 to by migratory birds a fact which was fortunately 

 taken advantage of by Mr H. Laidlaw, one of the light- 

 keepers, who has from time to time contributed interesting 

 notes to our pages and to the yearly Reports on Scottish 

 Ornithology, and whose good offices and assistance during 

 my visit of nearly five weeks (3rd September to 6th October) 

 I desire gratefully to acknowledge. I may here say that I 



