146 KEPOKT — 1888. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. John Cordeaux (Secre- 

 tary), Professor A. Newton, ]\Ix. J. A. Harvie-Bro^vn, Mr. 

 William Eagle Clarke, Mr. R. M. Barrington, and Mr. A. 

 G-. More, reappointed at Manchester for the purpose of 

 obtaining {with the consent of the Master and Brethren of the 

 Trinity House and the Cominissioners of Northern and Irish 

 Lights) observations on the Migration of Birds at Lighthouses 

 and Lightvessels, and of reporting on the same} 



Altogether about two hundred lighthouses and lightships on the coasts 

 of Great Britain and Ireland, and the outlying islands, were supplied 

 with printed tables for recording the movements of migratory birds. The 

 collected results of the observations have been again published by the 

 Committee in their ninth report. There has been a considerable increase 

 in the number of schedules sent in, and it is satisfactory to note that 

 the majority of the returns show increased care, and much intelligent 

 interest on the part of the observer. 



Commencing with the east coast of Scotland, Mr, John Nichol, the 

 principal of the North Unst Lighthouse, reports that several pied-ravens, 

 presumably visitors from the Faroes, were seen in June and July near 

 Lerwick ; one of these had white wings, another with white head and tips 

 of wings, others also variously marked. 



At the Pentland Skerries a cirl-bunting was obtained on November 2. 

 This species has only been recorded four or five times in Scotland, and 

 never so far north in the country. 



At the same period there was at this station a large ' rush ' of field- 

 fares, redwings, thrushes and blackbirds, gold-crested wrens, snow- 

 buntings and woodcocks with a south-east wind. A hoopoe was also 

 seen on October 9. 



Between the middle of August and up to October several pied- 

 flycatchers are also recorded at Pentland Skerries. 



A considerable number of schedules from the chief stations on the 

 east coast of Scotland have been filled with the movements of the gannet, 

 and these, with other accounts already published, will, at some future 

 date, constitute materials for a thorough treatment of the wanderings of 

 this species, and their relations to the migration of the herring in the 

 northern seas. 



The number of schedules sent in from thirty-four stations on the 

 east coast of England was eighty-four. 



After January 2 depressions of a very considerable size passed by 

 our north-western and northern shores, with sudden changes of tem- 

 perature of an unusual character, and great magnitude ; showers of cold 

 rain, sleet and hail, from day to day, and very severe frosts at night. 

 There are verj' clear indications in the diary of migration that a ' great 

 rush' of birds, going southward along the coast, was concurrent with 

 these atmospheric disturbances. The birds chiefly noted being fieldfares, 

 blackbirds, thrushes, redwings, larks, chafl&nches, linnets, starlings, and 

 some crows. 



• ' Report on the Migration of Birds in the Spring and Autumn of 1887.' McFar- 

 lane and Erskine, 19 St. James's Square, Edinburgh. 



