1924' Notes. 45 



particulars of the ring, which was engraved as follows : " Retur, Zoolstat, 

 Helgoland, Xo. 21311 " It was quite a small dark bird, both primary 

 feathers being well barred. I had a conversation with Mr, Taylor about 

 this bird not long ago and he says there are two distinct varieties of Cock 

 at Baronscourt, the dark, as he calls them Foreign Birds, and the lighter 

 or home-bred birds. ]Mr. Taylor is a good field naturalist and I think as 

 the sequel shows, he is right in his surmise. 



On getting the abo\'e information, I immediately wrote to Mr. H. F. 

 Witherby, the originator of the " British Birds " Ringing Scheme, giving 

 him full particulars, to which he replied that he had heard from Dr. 

 Weigold of the Biological Station, Heligoland, and he states that " the 

 woodcock was ringed on Heligoland on April 2Qth, 1923, just on its way 

 back to its breeding quarters." It was therefore presumably on its 

 southern migration when it was shot by the Marquis of Hamilton on 31st 

 December, 1923. 



For some years Col. Ashley, of Co. Sligo, ringed large numbers of Wood- 

 cock, the result of which I condensed from the original article, and my 

 notes were published in this journal, page 92, vol. 27 for 191 8 ; the}' give 

 some interesting data on the wanderings of this species. 



Lismore, Windsor, Belfast. W. H. Workman, 



Rooks' Air Route. 



When reading Miss Frances Pitt's fascinating book " Shetland Pirates," 

 I was greatly struck in her chapter on Rooks, Corvits frugilegus, with her 

 observations on their air routes, and I am sure it will interest your readers 

 to know that over Belfast, I have for many years observ^ed how the rooks 

 night and morning very closely follow one of these air routes which passes 

 over my home in Windsor Avenue. It is most interesting to watch them 

 in the winter mornings as it begins to get light, as they fly from Dunmurry ; 

 on fine mornings very high up, just specks in the sky, and if the morning 

 is cloudy and in misty weather, down they come to a low elevation just 

 over the trees and hovises. On these mornings they are much later and 

 evidently they are afraid of flying into a cloud and losing sight of land. 

 Their destination is the sloblands at the head of Belfast Lough, over by 

 the Victoria Park and down to the Kinnegar, where they spread out to 

 feed. 



In the evening according to the weather they start on their homeward 

 flight, on wild storm\^ days they get home early and in the winter time 

 during the short days they start home in good time passing over Bally- 

 macarret, then over the southern corner of the City Hall and Windsor 

 Avenue, straight on to Dunmurry, where they circle round and round 

 above their roosting trees for a considerable time cawing loudly all the 

 while. Finally as it begins to get a little dusk they settle down for the 

 night. It takes the rooks roughly four minutes to fly from the City Hall 



