OCCASIONAL NOTES. 105 
morning that they are to be found in any number on the mountain-sides. 
They are very shy, and exceedingly quick, so that it is no easy matter to 
shoot them in the bush, where there is so much cover. As they can only 
soar down hill, it is the custom when stalking them to begin at the bottom 
and work upwards. At the roots of the trees are seen mounds resembling 
mole-hills, but larger and more regularly formed, which have been scratched 
up by the male birds, and are their dancing beds, on which they dance and 
twirl, showing themselves off before the females. It is when amusing 
themselves in this way that the male mocks all the other birds in the bush, 
and so perfectly does it imitate them that it is ouly by its bringing in its 
own whistle now and then that it can be discovered. The nest is difficult 
to find, and is built of twigs, with an arch of the same over it, resembling 
the broad handle of a basket. It is said they lay only two eggs in the year, 
and the second is not laid until the first is hatched; but whether the same 
nest is used is not quite certain. The tail of the male bird brings 
seven shillings and sixpence, and is consequently much sought after; a 
good number are destroyed, but they-are now protected by law during the 
breeding season. Dogs are sometimes employed for hunting them, and 
are trained to keep the birds in the trees into which they have hopped, by 
continually barking at them until those in search of them come up. 
Miaration oF Brrps.—At the same meeting, Mr. Harvie Brown read 
some notes on the migration of birds, with special reference to specimens 
of the Glossy Ibis, Ibis falcinellus, and the Ksquimaux Curlew, Numenius 
borealis, which had been shot on the mud-flats at the mouth of the river 
Ythan, in Aberdeenshire, this year, and had been forwarded by Mr. George 
Sim, of Aberdeen, who gave the various measurements and contents of the 
stomachs of each. Some doubt was for a time entertained as to whether the 
Curlew was N. minor, the Asiatic ally, or N. borealis, but by comparison 
with other specimens it had been fully identified as being the latter species ; 
but he thought the question of identity was not of much moment, because, 
bold as the assertion may appear, the matter of a few thousand miles in the 
migration of birds is comparatively of little importance, as the simultaneous 
appearance of rare migrants upon our coasts, hailing both from north-eastern 
and from north-western habitats has been noticed during the same prevailing 
winds, and at the same time. It is known that birds do not travel willingly 
directly with the wind, but prefer to fly against it, or partly against it, during 
migration, and the prevailing trend of migration is from east to west, or 
from south of east to north of west, as has been clearly shown by the 
lighthouses and lightships returns for 1879. He then gave particulars 
regarding the migration of rare species, other than those mentioned, and 
stated that the opinion of several naturalists who have paid attention to this 
subject has been gradually gaining ground, that a large proportion, if not 
all, of the sixty-seven species of North American birds which have from 
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