154 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Westward Movement of Birds during Snow. — We had no snow 

 here on Christmas Day, but awoke on the morrow to find the ground 

 covered with about six inches. I was shooting all day on the 26th, 

 and so had ample opportunity of watching the many flocks of birds that 

 were continually passing. Sky-Larks were by far the most numerous, 

 but there were many Starlings (in flocks of twenty to fifty individuals), 

 and a good number of Fieldfares and Lapwings. I was rather surprised 

 to note that all the birds were flying due south, as I had an idea that 

 such a migration would have been westerly or south-westerly. The 

 birds were not following a river valley or range of hills, as the small 

 valley in which I was runs S.S.W., and thus they were crossing it 

 diagonally, and they had, of course, recently crossed the Thames valley 

 at right angles. I would suggest the following theory with regard to 

 this migration : The cause was, I think, the complete cutting off of the 

 food supply by the snow — Sky-Larks, Starlings, Thrushes, and Lap- 

 wings being chiefly affected — and not the advent of cold weather. All 

 those birds which happened to be situated away from the coast in Scot- 

 land and England immediately migrated due south, and probably any- 

 one observing at any spot in the whole length of the Thames valley 

 would have seen the migrants crossing it at right angles, as I have no 

 reason to believe I was situated in a special line of flight. Those birds 

 near the coast probably concentrated there, and followed the coast- 

 line, as observed by Mr. Patterson. As soon as the migrants arrived 

 at the south coast they turned west, eventually crossing to Ireland, 

 where, having once been set in a westerly direction, they kept on as 

 far as they could. Why they did not cross the Channel when they 

 arrived at the south coast it is hard to say. Had they an hereditary 

 instinct that the weather was likely to be even worse on the Continent 

 than here ? Yet, if this were so, why did not they start off in a 

 westerly direction ? As they refused the Channel crossing, why did 

 they not refuse the crossing to Ireland ? Was it simply that they had 

 absolutely no other choice ? At any rate, they seem to have followed 

 the two sides of a triangle instead of going the shortest way. Mr. H. 

 Peters Bone suggests that the great migration on the south coast 

 emanated from the Continent. I think that, considering most of the 

 birds from Scotland and England evidently arrived at the south coast, 

 it is not necessary to suppose there were foreign migrants as well. — 

 Norman H. Joy (Bradfield, near Beading). 



Notes on some Welsh Birds in 1905 and 1906. — For ten days in 

 1905 and 1906 I had the opportunity of studying the birds on a little- 

 known part of the Welsh coast. It was unfortunately rather early for 



