175 



l>anc;isliire. On the 2l)tli n. siiiolo Lird and on tlie 27th ahuut twenty 

 arrived in Itumney Marsli (Kent), and on the 28th a pair were passing' 

 in JJrecon. 



On the 1st and 2nd of May a few arrived on tlie [lanipsliire coast, and 

 by the 11th the numbers in IJomnev Marsli had vastly ii creased, the 

 majority passing on between then and the 25th. On the 1st tliree 

 were seen in Cheshire, on the 2ud there was a movement through 

 Mc-riouetli ; they were heard passing N. in Hertfordshire ou the 3rd, 

 in Somerset and Renfrew on the 7th, in Glamorgan on the 8th and 

 9th, in Lancashire on the 9th and 12th, in Somerset on the 10th 

 and in Anglesey on the 10th, 11th and 12th, while small numbers 

 were passing across the Isle of Man between the 12th and 19th and 

 the Pentland Skerries (Orkney) on the 8th, 10th, 11th and the KJth. 

 A further arrival took place in Norfolk on tlie 7th, the numbers 

 assuming larger proportions on the 13tli : all had passed on by 

 the 23rd. 



THE LITTLE AUK {Mergulus alle). 



The winter of 1911-12 was remarkable for one of the largest visitations 

 of this sppcies that has ever occurred in Great Britain. The birds 

 appeared in great numbers in the Pentland Firth and at the Pentland 

 Skerries (Orkney) early in November 1911, and one was seen oif Scar- 

 borough (Yorkshire) as early as the 1st of that month. Others appeared 

 at Auskerry (Orkney) and Fair Isle (Shetland) in the middle of the month, 

 and stragglers occurred at Stallingborough (Lincolnshire) ou the 13th, 

 at Ilebden Bridge and Beverle}' (Yorkshire) on the 21st and 24th, at 

 Louth (Lincolnshire) on the 23rd, and at Scarborough on the 30th. 



Early in December the birds that had been accumulating in the seas 

 round the Orkneys seem to have been driven south ; one appeared in the 

 Forth on the 3rd, and they were plentiful there on the 8th and 17th, 

 while stragglers were recorded at sevei'al places on the east coast of 

 Scotland between the 12th and the end of the month. Considerable 

 numbers arrived off the Yorkshire coast between Scarborough and Filey 

 during the latter part of December, thirteen wei'e seen at the mouth of 

 the Aide (Suffolk) on the 22nd_. and a straggler was found in Shropshire 

 on the 26th. 



A S.E. gale with snow on the 8th and 9th of January, 1912, 

 brought hundreds of Little Auks on to the Northumberland coast; 

 with that exception but little movement was recorded until the end 

 of the second week of January. On the loth a fierce easterly gale 

 began on the E. coast of Scotland which lasted until the 18th, and 

 during that period, and after, many hundreds of these birds were driven 

 ashore along the whole coast from the Shetlands to Berwick and were 

 scattered far inland across the southern half of Scotland. It seems 



