GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS 95 



1 89 1, pp. J 78-9), who describes the effect of its use as 

 very apparent in Nottinghamshire. He remarks that 

 its most interesting- feature is the fact of its beincr 

 traversed in spring, when amongst the other birds 

 using this route are the Dunlin, Common Sandpiper, 

 Redshank, Sand-Martin, and Yellow Wagtail. In his 

 Birds of Derbyshire, this same author (pp. 15^/5^^.) 

 states that the Trent valley is "extensively used as a 

 fly-line of birds travelling to and from their breedino- 

 grounds in the north, and naturally causes this portion 

 of the county {i.e., that which borders the Trent) to 

 be richest in bird-life, both as regards numbers and 

 species." 



The Wash. — The late Lord Lilford {Zoologist, 1891, 

 p. 52) states his opinion that the valley of the Nene, 

 from the Wash as far up as Thrapston, is certainly a 

 much-used route of migration, but he believed that the 

 majority of the autumn migrants left the valley some- 

 where above that town, and struck across the country 

 for the eastern affluents of the Severn. Unfortunately, 

 his lordship did not name any of the species using this 

 route. 



Mr O. V. Aplin informs me that he is of opinion 

 that certain winter visitors reach Oxfordshire from the 

 Wash via the Northamptonshire valleys. Also, that 

 there is an important fly-line crossing Oxfordshire from 

 north-east to south-west between the Wash and the 

 Bristol Channel. This is much used by Gulls in the 

 autumn, and in a lesser degree by some Waders. 



Thames Valley. — This is another much-used route 

 to and from the interior of southern England. On 

 1 8th October 1903, I traced great numbers of Starlings 

 and Skylarks (which were then crossing the North 



