REPORT ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 203 
west coast observers at ‘'yree and elsewhere. Our observers 
have not usually reported the direction taken by the migrants, 
but there are enough data to prove the above lines. It would 
appear, therefore, that birds when passing from east to west 
often overshoot the land, and are compelled to turn back upon 
a new course, according to the direction of the wind. In 
1878, Mr. W. Boyd (since deceased) wrote regarding the migra- 
tion in Mull as follows:—‘‘In the month of October I was 
fishing on Loch Assapol, near Bunessan. Almost every day 
I saw flock after flock of little birds—Larks, Buntings, Robins, 
and even Wrens—flying across the loch. All these birds were 
steering the same course, having apparently come from the 
outlying Hebrides, vid Tyree, Iona, up the Rose of Mull, and 
were steering for the mainland. Fresh arrivals of different 
species of Ducks rested and then passed on. Wild Swans and 
Geese were seen far up in the air, all taking a bee-line for the 
south.” On another occasion Mr. Boyd visited Tyree in 
December, 1878, and both he and a companion remarked “the 
extraordinary scarcity of common birds, and the unusual number 
of winter visitors. One day every Snipe they put up, instead of 
flying a bit and settling again, rose high in air, and went off due 
south-east as far as they could see, right across the sea, to Mull. 
‘The remark was then made, “ The sooner we go south for powder 
and provisions the better; we are going to have an arctic winter,” 
which, as is well remembered, was a perfectly correct surmise. 
It will thus be seen that the flights of wildfowl almost invariably 
are from N. to 8. on both coasts, but that the smaller birds— 
land birds—as they fly lower, are more influenced by the 
configuration of the coast-lines, and also, no doubt, by the 
direction of the wind at the time. Our data are at present too 
scanty to lay down with precision the minutie of their lines of 
flight, but another year’s observations will probably greatly assist 
us. The same rules, as to time of day or night at which birds 
strike the lantern, holds upon the west coast which also obtain 
on the east, and the same remarks as to weather also hold good. 
The above remarks upon the direction of the flights upon our 
West coast may prove of value in a comparison with Mr. 
Cordeaux’s notes upon the direction of the flights at the 
Galloper Bank. We are aware here that birds pass overland on 
migration, crossing Scotland between the Firths of Clyde and 
