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Birds of Lauderdale. 



By Rev. Wm. McConaciiie, F.-S.A. (8cot.), Lauder. 



Few places of equal extent are more favourable to the 

 study of ornithology than the basin of the Leader. Rumiing 

 in a Southerly direction, the main dale is one of the routes 

 followed by part of the migrant host every spring. A close 

 observer might find traces of this Northward movement in 

 April and May, but, to myself, it has been more apparent 

 when the summer migrants were making their way South 

 again in autunm. On broad lines the routes chosen by the 

 migrants were those followed by " the auld enemy " of England, 

 and for very similar reasons. 



The diversified character of the country — consisting of hill, 

 moor and glen, extensive pastureland, hedge and woodland, 

 stream and, in the immediate neighbourhood, bog or marsh- 

 land — produces a corresponding variety in the bird life. The 

 excellent list given in " Lauder and Lauderdale " by 

 A. Thomson, F.S.A. (Scot.), contains one hundred and twenty- 

 eight species, to which it has been my good fortune to be 

 able to add two or three new names. 



One or two of the largei' Falconidcn recorded by him niay 

 still be seen in the houses of some of our local bird lovers, 

 who have most interesting collections of birds obtained in the 

 district. One of the best of these specimens is perhajDs a 

 Kite, trapped more than twenty years ago on the farm at 

 Addinston. Buzzards still visit our hills from year to year, 

 and hardly a season passes without Peregrines — probably the 

 ]jass birds or others from the East coast of the county — 

 being seen. One of these mu.st have been the chief actor in 

 a most unusual scene witnessed near the East Water last 

 autumn. A flock of five Wild Geese were flying low, when 



