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PAUCITY OF REDWINGS IN THE WEST RIDING. 



HARRY B. BOOTH, M.B.O.U. 



A YEAR ago* I reported on the unusual numbers of Redwings 

 that had passed through this district, particularly overhead, 

 and especially during the night of November 4th, 1907. This 

 season it was the very opposite, and I never remember having 

 heard or seen so few Redwings ; and my friends report similarly. 

 The ' birds of passage,' which we usually expect to hear in 

 numbers during the last week in October and in early Novem- 

 ber, were only heard in stray and desultory parties, notwith- 

 standing that the weather at the time appeared to be most 

 favourable for hearing them. Neither have we been more 

 favoured with the Redwings which remain here during the 

 greater part of the winter, nor the additional ones that arrive 

 in this district on the approach of a severe frost ; they have 

 been in much smaller quantities all round. 



It is rather puzzling to learn that the same species passed 

 in larger numbers than ever in several places in Scotland last 

 autumn, f Mr. W. Eagle Clarke tells me that he has never 

 previously seen so many on the Fair Isle (intermediate between 

 the Orkney and Shetland groups). In the ' Annals of Scottish 

 Natural History (1909, p. 7), Miss E. V. Baxter, in ' Bird Notes 

 from the Isle of May ' (Firth of Forth), writes of the Redwing : — 

 ' After I left, Mr. Maccuish (the light-keeper), reports a great 

 " rush " on October i6th, and on the 23rd, from 2 a.m. till 

 daylight (W. wind, light, hazy) " an enormous rush " followed, 

 and another from 7 p.m. on the 23rd till daybreak on the 24th. 

 On the 27th, 28th, and 29th of October, there were large flocks 

 at the lantern ; from 6 p.m. on the 3rd of November till day- 

 light on the 4th, there were many at the light ; and next night 

 the " rush " was repeated. Mr. Maccuish says that this was 

 the largest " rush " of one species that he has every seen.' 

 There are also several other places in Scotland where Redwings 

 have been noted as more numerous than usual. 



I don't wish to infer that birds passing over parts of Scot- 

 land should pass over our immediate neighbourhood ; but it 

 certainly appears strange that whilst Redwings should be pas- 

 sing south in Scotland in such great numbers, w€ should 



* 'The Naturalist," 1908, p. 17. 



t A large number passed Spurn in the month of October. — Eds. 



Naturalist, 



