REPORT ON SCOTTISH ORNITHOLOGY FOR 1908 195 



One outstanding feature of the spring migration was the 

 unprecedented inrush and confusion of species which took 

 place in the last day or two in April, and first day or two 

 in May, when, as a result of a change of conditions, all those 

 then due and those that had survived among the species 

 overdue arrived together. A pointed illustration of the 

 late inrush may be given. The dates available relating to 

 the appearance of summer visitors in the "Clyde" area at 

 least equal in amount those for the whole of Scotland. 

 Taking '* Clyde," then, as a unit, to illustrate the country 

 generally, it is found that between 26th April and 4th May, 

 a period of nine days, there were recorded in the year under 

 review the first appearances of eleven species (" The Glasgow 

 Naturalist," part iii., p. 71), in 1909 two species {I.e., p. 73). 

 It is due to Mr. D. Macdonald, who has sent admirable 

 schedules for several years from Mull, to say, that he 

 considers the spring migration to have been retarded and 

 deflected, but the present writer has come to the conclusion 

 that it was arrested and partially strangled in central and 

 south-eastern England. The table showing the difference 

 in the numbers of pairs of migrants observed in a small area 

 at Tunbridge Wells in 1907 and 1908, with its remarkable 

 deficiency in the latter year, if true of central and southern 

 England as a whole, is perhaps significant of more than its 

 authors have realised (" British Birds," vol. ii., 1908-9, p. 326). 



The autumn emigration from the west coast at any rate 

 was remarkably retarded, judging from the narrative given 

 by Mr. Anderson from Tiree (p. 51), and Mr. Macdonald's 

 notes. This is accounted for by the latter as being a 

 result of a mild autumn, while the former attributes it to the 

 continuance for six weeks of strong south-east winds, as the 

 birds nearly all disappeared when the wind changed to the 

 west (p. 51). The great annual immigration of the Redwing, 

 which is the most impressive feature of our returns, took 

 place on the i6th and 17th of October, wind S.S.E., and 

 was observed at many stations from Sule Skerry to Cathcart 

 (Renfrew). The autumn witnessed a great irruption of the 

 Goldcrest, of which we have had no such striking illustration 

 for years past. The observations run from lOth September 

 till 9th November, and the period of intensity synchronised 



