1910-1911.] Bird Migration in Solway. 301 



found at nine o'clock A.M. to be lined in many places by 

 parties of Thrushes and Blackbirds, each, as usual, keeping 

 apart. If these birds were there at eight o'clock I had failed 

 to notice them when I passed. There seemed no doubt that 

 the birds were all resting on migration. At two o'clock, when 

 I specially looked for them, not a single bird of the hundreds 

 seen in the morning could be found." 



The last of the Thrushes and Blackbirds have not left when 

 great flocks of Eedwings and Fieldfares arrive to take the 

 places of their congeners, and enliven with their presence and 

 chattering calls the dullest months of the year. Many a time 

 and oft I have watched the arrival of these birds from an 

 eastward direction, thus crossing at right angles the line of 

 flight of other birds going southwards. That is an excep- 

 tionally interesting point in migration phenomena, which I 

 will refer to again. 



Every one has seen the Swallows and their kindred 

 gathering for departure. For some days we may have been 

 observing a flock of Swallows. It becomes gradually larger 

 as recruits join its ranks from the surrounding district. Two 

 or more such flocks will sometimes, and often do, coalesce. 

 Some fine sunny morning the flock will be noticed to be 

 unusually active. Sudden flights from the housetops where 

 they sit will be taken, and after a short wheel or two round 

 the roof they will again alight. Generally soon after noonday 

 these flights become of longer duration and on a wider circuit, 

 each time the flock rises. Then, with that sudden and 

 simultaneous movement which is so conspicuous a feature 

 in the behaviour of the birds at departing time, all head 

 southwards, and move slowly onwards till lost to sight: 

 sometimes they rise to great heights, usually they remain 

 comparatively low in altitude. 



The species I have been discussing are all land birds, 

 belonging to the great division of the Singers, and while the 

 questions to be solved in the great movements of seasonal 

 migration performed twice a-year by them are of the most 

 intricate and complex nature, we must now leave them to 

 consider the fine groups of Waders and Swimmers, whose 

 movements are more easily observed and noted. 



These gather in our area, or pass overhead, in, for the most 



