284 BEPOET— 1882. 



Eegarding the spring migration the Bell Rock and the Isle of May- 

 have hitherto returned the fullest schedules, and very considerable 

 numerical returns are already communicated for the 1882 report. Sand- 

 wich Terns pass every spring along the coast of Forfarshire, but shoot 

 off from the land again, and do not breed upon many of the suitable 

 places they pass over. Occasionally a pair of birds remain and breed, as 

 is shown by the nesting of this species on Inch Mickary in the Firth of 

 Forth in the past season, and on a previous occasion at the same place. 

 In the spring birds return on the same lines they travelled in autumn, 

 from N.W. and W. to E. and S.E. Migration has been earlier than in 

 1880, in many cases birds arriving in advance of recent years, this having 

 been notably the case with some of the Limicolce, such as have the 

 widest range, and whose breeding haunts are circumpolar, that is, confined 

 to lands surrounding the North Pole. Also in the case of the Anatidce, 

 which arrived fully a month before their average period. Spurn Point is 

 a great point of departure on the English coast, and we have seen that 

 Grey Plover, Knot, and Bar-tailed Godwits shoot off the land there, 

 because while they are annually seen there and southward of it in lai'ge 

 numbers and in full breeding dress, nowhere to the north of it do they 

 appear except in isolated cases. Still, the routes of spring migrants, 

 whilst they are usually more direct than those of autumn migrants, are 

 perhaps more difficult to trace, and our data are far from perfect yet. 

 This is in no small measure caused by the well-known fact amongst 

 ornithologists that it is always more difficult to fix dates of departures 

 than to fix those of arrivals. 



It may be said the general features of migration with reference to 

 linos of flight, time, height of travelling, favourable winds or otherwise, 

 circumstances of greatest casualties at lanterns of lightships and light- 

 houses, are the same as set forth in previous reports ; yet in 1881 we find 

 several important valuations from the normal phenomena consequent on 

 the direction of the wind and general character of the season. From the 

 commencement of August to the end of October the prevailing winds on 

 the English coast have been northei'ly and easterly, and as far north as 

 Isle of May and Bell Rock, whilst north of this latter point they have 

 been moi-e westerly, except at Pentland Skerries. The winter of 1881-82 

 has been remarkable for its high temperatures, no such uniformly mild 

 season having occurred for many years in this country, and the same has 

 been the case over the whole of Northern Europe north of latitude 50° 

 north. As might be expected, such an exceptional season has not been 

 without its effects upon our migrants. Fieldfares have crossed in very 

 limited numbers, and have everywhere been remarkably scarce in loca- 

 lities along our east coast-lines, and on the west coast absent. Large 

 numbers of birds which regularly arrive in the autumn, as the Greenfinch, 

 Chaffinch, Tree-sparrow, Snow Bunting, and others, and which remain for 

 a few days only and then pass on, have this year continued for many 

 weeks, and even months, resorting in iminense flocks to the stubbles, 

 where they found abundant supplies of food. Snow Buntings have been 

 considerably in excess of anything known for many years, the proportion 

 of old birds being not more than one in a hundred. 



Not the least remarkable was the influx of the larger Raptorial Birds 



that there must be points of both arrival and departure in the north-east of this 

 county, as many rare species liave occurred there, judging from previous records by 

 Edwards and otliers. 



