15 



Of the counties which have formed the points of arrival 

 of the immigrants, Sussex and Hampshire have been "by 

 far the most favoured ; while Devon and Dorset come next, 

 and Kent follows. A very few apparently direct over- 

 sea arrivals have been recorded in Essex, but in this 

 connection it must be noted that these immigrants may 

 have first proceeded up the east coast of Kent, where our 

 observers are few. 



It may here be noted that those migrants, which are 

 very rare or unknown in Ireland, have none of them 

 arrived on the western end of the south coast. 



As regards the distribution of the migrants after their 

 arrival on the coast^ perhaps one of the most interesting 

 points brought out by the records is that in some species 

 (such as the Whinchat and Chiff chaff), the birds which 

 arrived first were not the nesting-birds of the southern 

 counties. In most of these cases a few of the birds 

 composing the first immigrations remained in the south, 

 but the bulk journeyed further north. 



A further point of general interest in relation to the 

 distribution of the migrants, and one that is borne out by 

 many records, is that, in the case of a number of species, 

 Wales as well as the western and north-western counties 

 of England were populated before the eastern and north- 

 eastern counties. 



The rapidity with which many species passed north- 

 wards to their breeding-grounds immediately after their 

 arrival on our shores should also be noted. 



Finally, we may draw attention to two routes, which 

 appear to be taken by birds of passage through this 

 country — the one from Devon and Dorset, through the 

 West of England and North Wales, and so out of the 

 country, and the other from Sussex and the south-eastern 

 corner of England, probably up the south-eastern coast, 

 and out of the country from Norfolk, and, possibly, from 

 still further north. Although these routes seem to be 

 fairly well defined by the records for the spring of 1905, 



