voL.vm.] NOTES ON MIGRATION. 229 



The south-east winds were coincident with the 

 appearance of several birds which I suspected had come 

 from the east, in addition to the Firecrests of 

 November 1st. On October 29th a Great Orey Shrike 

 appeared, and stayed till the 31st. On the 30th I saw 

 a Chi^chaff, the first since the 15th, and on November 

 1st another (or the same) ; if it was the same it had 

 moved a mile west-north-west. Neither of these was 

 Ph. c. tristis. November 2nd was a fearfully stormy day, 

 huge seas being hurled on to the point by the south-east 

 gale, and in the afternoon a crowd of Gannets was sitting 

 just off the point, occasionally plunging for fish. In a 

 very bad light I put a small Warbler out of a bush, 

 and after wearily following it backwards and forwards 

 and several times almost losing it I saw it really well. 

 To all appearances it was a Reed-Warbler, but of course 

 there is a chance that it was Blyth's Reed-Warbler. 



I have said nothing of the sea-birds, whose movements 

 off Dungeness are always interesting to watch, but 

 rather puzzling. In watching them one realises the 

 absurdity of trying to make a hard and fast division 

 between migration and other bird-movements. I doubt 

 if most sea-birds know when they are migrating and 

 when they are not doing so, although they cover such 

 a vast area from season to season. Velvet-Scoters were 

 far more plentiful than I have known them near 

 Dungeness in other winters. On October 18th and 19th 

 I saw a Great Northern Diver among the Red-throats 

 (some of which were still in summer dress) ; on the 29th 

 a Little Gull flew past the point early in the morning ; 

 on November 1st and 3rd I saw what must, I think, 

 have been an immature Eider. On the 1st it flew past 

 the point with some Scoters, and looked a good deal 

 larger than they. On the 3rd it came over me, flying 

 along the coast, and just at the last moment I noticed 

 the shape of its beak. On October 24th a bird that I 

 took to be a Lapland Bunting flew past, going due 

 south, during the early morning departure of migrants. 



