92 REPORT ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



deflecting the lines, and passing down iq)on the tight shoulders (so 

 to speak) of the passing hirds.* 



This year the prevaiHng winds and gales were from east and 

 north-east, and while these winds do not appear to have 

 compressed the horizontal lines so mueJi as the north-westerly did 

 in 1879 the birds appear to have passed at greater elevations, 

 and been borne away in the gales far out to sea. The migration 

 does not appear to have come in such great throbs or rushes in 

 1880 as in 1879, but to have been more dispersed and more 

 regular ; this, no doubt, is a natural consequence of the waves 

 being more spread out in 1880 than in 1879. The great easterly 

 gales continuing for weeks together over the Atlantic and North 

 of Europe, so disastrous to our shipping, undoubtedly carried 

 many migrants far to the westward, and the mortality amongst 

 them must have been very great indeed, if we judge from the few 

 records that have reached us from sea-going vessels. These 

 easterly gales also have, no doubt, affected the direction of the 

 migration to a considerable extent, and indications of its agency 

 may be found in the occurrence on our shores of certain 

 wanderers from foreign lands, such as the Esquimaux Curlew, 

 on September 21st, in Kincardineshire {vide Zool., 1880, p. 485) ; 

 a Red-legged Hobby, on September '20th ; a Turtle Dove in 

 Kincardineshire ; and Great Snipes, Great Grey Shrikes, t &c., 

 about the same dates {loc. cit.). These gales may be said to have 

 continued almost without cessation during the whole migrating 

 season, all through September, October, November, and De- 

 cember. In November a new bird to our British list occurred, — 

 the Desert Wheatear, Saxieola deserti, Euppell, — as will be found 

 duly recorded by Mr. John James Dalgleish.* It was obtained 

 near Alloa on November 26tli. Its native haunts are far to the 

 southward and eastward, and in North Africa, Egypt, Persia 

 and India. 



Mr. Cordeaux has already shown to us the apparently 

 abnormal statistics on the south coast of England, birds crossing 

 towards England and flying north-west all through the migratory 



* Even the stroug-winged Wild Geese and Swans are observed when 

 flying well up in the wind to drift to one side a little, having the appearance 

 of flying left-shoulder first instead of head first. 



f Unusually abundant in Heligoland. 



; Proc. Ryl. Phyl. Soc. Edin., 1880-81, vol. vi., p. 64. 



