OTES 



MIGRATION IN JANUARY. 



I DO not know whether other observers would agree that 

 true migration appears to cease in this country about the 

 beginning of December ; apart from local movements due 

 to shortage of food, or larger movements obviously connected 

 with a sudden spell of cold weather, I had never, until this 

 winter, observed anything like real southward migration 

 after about December loth. 



I was at Dungeness from December 30th, 1920 to January 

 3rd, IQ2I. December 31st was wet and stormy ; January ist 

 less windy, but very wet after 10 a.m. ; January 2nd wet and 

 stormy ; and January 3rd sunny with hardly any wind. 

 The temperature was well above the average all the time, 

 and January 3rd would have done credit to the south of Italy. 

 I believe similar mild conditions prevailed generally over 

 our islands and the neighbouring parts of Europe. The 

 shingle bushes, in which there are often a few Pipits and 

 Linnets and other small birds, as well as Larks, in mid-winter, 

 were exceptionally empty. I saw nothing but Larks in them. 



At dawn on January ist I rather thought I heard a 

 Brambling's note, but as I did not hear it again I inferred 

 that I had imagined it. Before sunrise on January 3rd a 

 Meadow- Pipit {Anthus pratensis) came flying south along the 

 shingle towards the point, and during the following hour or 

 more (8 — 9 a.m.) small parties of Linnets [Carduelis c. 

 cannahina) and a few Greenfinches {C Moris c. chloris) were 

 frequently passing, flying in directions between south and 

 west. A few of these seemed to have come in from the east, 

 but they may only have been flying parallel to the coast a 

 little way out", and come in at the point. Most of the morning 

 I was on Littlestone sands, where I saw two Sky-Larks {Alauda 

 arvensis) flying in from the east, but I could not be sure that 

 they had not been feeding nearer the' sea. 



About 1 1. 15 I saw a party of about fifteen Linnets flying 

 steadily south over Littlestone sandhills. On my return to 

 the point I specially crossed the ground on which Finches 

 commonly settle, but I found none that had alighted. About 

 1. 15 I heard a Goldfinch (C. carduelis) flying (apparently) 

 west or south-west ; and a moment later two or three Linnets 

 going in the same direction. Apparently this was about the 



