68 REPORT ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



but disappeared on the 19th, owmg, Mr. H. thinks, to a rise of 

 temperature and the wind going round from N.E. to S.E. Mr. H. 

 was informed that numbers, probably the same birds, were seen 

 feeding at Duddingstone Loch on the 18th. Now, several years 

 ago, a similar assemblage was noted at the same locality, by a 

 well-known Edinburgh ornithologist, but it occurred, not in spring 

 but in autumn, and a general movement was at that time also 

 noted by Mr. H., and recorded in the Proc. Eyl. Phyl. Soc. of 

 Edinburgh, on Jan. 15th, 1879, from which last noted records 

 of autumnal migration it would appear that he saw about seventy 

 Pied Wagtails on the roof a house in Edinburgh, in the middle 

 of September, 1878, and Mr. Scot Skirviug, of Edinburgh, on a 

 previous occasion, saw some 300 at the General Post Office, but 

 the exact date of this latter record has unfortunately been lost or 

 mislaid, as we are unable, of course, to find out definitely the 

 meteorological phenomena accompanying the record. 



Further, my friend Mrc Eagle Clarke, notes the arrival of the 

 same species in the neighbourhood of the Ure Biver, near 

 Masham, Yorkshire, as early as Feb. 5th, 1883. Though resi- 

 dent in the lowlands about Leeds, it is migratory to and from 

 the higher lands. Mr. Eagle Clarke has often seen as many as 

 200 in a flock, on a large lawn near Leeds. 



Mr. Agnew informs me, that with a S. wind there is little 

 migration past the Isle of May, and that S.E. is the best wind in 

 spring to permit of observations being made. Five Wagtails 

 were seen at Isle of May on the 29th and 30th, however, during a 

 gale from the S. 



The Spring Migration of 1883 seems to me to indicate the 

 direct effects of the N.E. gale, causing these Wagtails to keep 

 inland by a more sheltered route, which Wagtails in ordinary 

 weather would probably have passed up the coast-line and 

 crossed the entrance of the Firth of Forth, showing themselves 

 at Isle of May and Bell Rock stations. Mr. Eobert Gray has, 

 I believe, frequently observed the spring arrivals of this species 

 on the west coast — in Ayrshire ; and it will be interesting to see 

 if we can trace the movement up the west coast, on the returning 

 lineSf when schedules are returned for 1883, from Mull of 

 Galloway and other west coast stations. 



I have dwelt upon these fatts because I believe that our 

 appreciation of the general lines and of the laws regulating the 



