80 REPORT ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



appears to have crossed Scotland between Clyde and Forth on 

 March 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th, 1884. On the 10th our covers 

 here (Dunipace) were full of Woodcock. Torwood also held 

 large numbers on 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th ; at Glenbervie, close 

 to this, also unusual numbers were observed. From the Ayrshh'e 

 coast they are reported numerous, but not more so than usual at 

 this season, indicating that the Ayrshire coast, or i^roperties 

 along the coast, are usually visited in the spring migration. At 

 Fassaroe, Bray, Co. Wicklow, ' Mr. Barrington made enquiries, 

 but no extraordinar}^ numbers have been noted there. At 

 Islay Mr. Ballingall reports unusual numbers about the time 

 mentioned. 



At Boss Priory, east side of Loch Lomond, a good many 

 were observed, there being snow on the ground at the time ; but 

 at Arden, on the west side, and almost immediately opposite, no 

 additions were observed. At Aberfoyle and neighbourhood very 

 large numbers were observed. In East Kilbryde Parish, to the 

 south of Forth and Clyde isthmus, two were seen at a locality where 

 none were ever seen before. At Callander no unusual number was 

 noticed, a good many appearing here at this season, which is usually 

 called *' The Beturn of the Woodcocks." Mr. Bobert Ferguson, 

 on the 11th, flushed eight within a mile-radius, "a most un- 

 usual circumstance here," — at Whitehill, Bosewell, Midlothian, — 

 and large numbers were observed near Innerleithen in Holylee 

 Woods and vicinity. To the east of this county no numbers of 

 any consequence were noted at Tulliallan or West Grange, in 

 Fife.* All the birds seen by myself were small red Scandinavian 

 birds, which I consider are quite unmistakable and distinct from 



* Subsequently I received a note from Mr. Seton Thomson, of Kinnaird 

 House, Stirlingshire, to the effect that the gamekeeper, on March 1st, on 

 taking a bee-line to Airth, two and a half miles over moss-land (Airth is on 

 the Stirlingshire side of the Firth of I^rth, where about three hundred yards 

 of water separate it fi-om Tulliallan) put up half a dozen Woodcocks in a 

 place where Woodcocks are very rarely seen. Many also were seen about 

 the garden at Kinnaird House; these were observed not to be the usual 

 Woodcocks, but a much redder-looking bird. There appears to have been a 

 great flight of Woodcocks at Aberfoj^le about March 15th. Mr. E. Ker's 

 keeper flushed five in about two square yards, and kept inittiag them up all 

 over. Two were seen also at Crutherland, by East Kilbride, on the 12th, 

 where a Woodcock was never seen before. 



