WEST COAST OF SCOTLAND. 65 



Scotch coasts, lasted from 8th to 23rd, but did not begin in 

 Faroe till 20th or 21st. A vast general rush of many other 

 species reached our coasts also between Oct. 8th and 23rd. The 

 great waves of Turdidcs scarcely seem to have reached Faroe, as 

 we have only a few records of them thence in December, and the 

 same remark may be held to apply to many other species 

 mentioned. 



It is also important to note, that while so abundant at the 

 outlying station of Isle of May and Bell Kock on the E. coast, 

 there should have been an almost complete absence of any 

 of these species at the next station, a little higher up the Firth 

 of Forth, viz., at Inchkeith ; and to record that it appears to be 

 always with westerly winds that birds occur there. While there 

 were hundreds of records at Isle of May, there were none with 

 the same winds at Inchkeith, and only about ten records in all. 

 Its somewhat landlocked position accounts for this, and its being 

 sheltered from the S.E. winds places it on a similar footing with 

 Chanonry and Cromarty, in the Moray Firth. Weather. — Upon 

 our E. coasts, easterly and south-easterly winds prevailed 

 throughout the greater part of the migratory seasons, both in 

 spring and autumn, and reached forces of from fresh to gales. 

 On the W. coast the wind was for the most part weterly and north 

 westerly, rarely S. during spring, at the greater part of the 

 stations, and was easterly and south-easterly in autumn, seldom 

 reaching fresh or strong, or gales, as on the E. coast, usually 

 light, or from light E. or S.E. to variable. The above facts will 

 be considered, whilst we state next the distribution of the 

 migratory waves on the W. coast, in relation to those on the E. 

 coast. As in 1881, records on the W. coast begin to bulk more 

 largely towards the southern stations. All north of Khinns 

 of Islay and MacArthur's Head the records of land-birds are 

 very scanty, and the lighthouse keepers remark upon the scarcity. 

 At usually (normally) crowded stations, such as Skervuile, they 

 are reported as yielding " fewer birds than for many years back." 

 Even at Ehinns of Islay the records are not large, but they 

 begin to show an increase at this point. Unfortunately I have 

 no autumn returns between Ehinns of Islay and Corsewall, which 

 latter is south of the Firth of Clyde. 



Now, if anything additional to the general bulk of the records 

 is required to show the line of migration of 1882, it is the 



K 



