SPRING MIGRATION IN THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 409 



As Mr. Harvie Brown has, since the date mentioned, dealt 

 very fully with the present distribution of this species in Scotland 

 (Zool. 1881, pp. 81—90), it will be unnecessary to repeat, and 

 it would be difficult to summarise, what he has already printed. 

 It will suffice for our present purpose to consider its distribution 

 in England, Wales, and Ireland. 



(To be continued.) 



SPEING MIGRATION IN THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 

 By John Coedeaux. 



If there is any truth, which may be doubted, in the old adage 

 that "a cold April, the barn will fill," this should be a most 

 fruitful and abundant year, for seldom have we had, even on this 

 bleak north-eastern shore, a colder and more inclement period 

 than between the 1st and 10th of April : each day persistently 

 damp, raw, and sunless, with strong northerly and north-easterly 

 winds, and occasional showers of cold rain and hail. On the 8th, 

 9th, and 10th the cold was so intense that no ordinary clothing 

 would keep it out. From the 10th to the 20th the weather was 

 cold, damp, and generally overcast. 



All this abnormal low temperature delayed the arrival of the 

 ordinary spring visitors. Wheatears were not seen before April 

 10th at Spurn, and previous to these a few Redstarts near the 

 same coast on the 4th and 5th. Golden Plover stayed later than 

 usual, and on the 10th I saw about one hundred and twenty on 

 some fallows, every bird of which, as viewed through a telescope, 

 was in summer plumage, — cheeks, neck, and a band down the 

 breast and the belly, black. On April 11th there were several 

 flocks about, and one of 300 to 400 birds, all with black under 

 parts; they were very restless and unquiet, repeatedly rising on 

 the wing and careering to and fro above the marshes, their 

 spring note, an oft-repeated mellow " klee-ar-ee," most pleasant 

 to hear. 



I found the mud-flats at low water lined with waders, chiefly 

 grey Dunlins ; an almost continuous dark belt for half a mile 

 along the tide-edge, besides very large flocks on the wing, 

 practising rapid and graceful evolutions, hundreds of silver-lined 



