WEST COAST OF SCOTLAND. 69 



great annual migrations can be very greatly assisted by the study 

 of individual species on their migration, and good opportunities 

 are in this report afforded us of doing so by the records of several 

 species. One more remark : — It seems also worthy of note that 

 very possibly these Wagtails were finding their way across 

 Scotland from the Solway or the Clyde, and, resting on the 

 General Post Office buildings, repaired south for daily food — as 

 I have noticed birds do during the spring migration on the 

 Petchora, at Ust Zylma, and Habarika, in N. E. Kussia; and on 

 the advent of a more favourable temperature and change of wind, 

 pursued their course northward. If these are correctly recorded 

 as Pied Wagtails, — as there is no reason to suppose is not so, — 

 then their destination would be the North of Scotland ; but if 

 they were the White Wagtail or continental form, then, as far as 

 general records of migration guide us, they would probably shoot 

 off again at Isle of May or Bell Rock — towards the Continent. 

 Mr. Agnew's note of ''very white Wagtails" at Isle of May 

 should be borne in mind in this connection {antea, p. 12). 



That a line of migration does occur across Scotland both in 

 spring and autumn between Forth and Clyde, I think, needs 

 little demonstration beyond what we have already stated in 

 previous reports ; both from data and by referring to General 

 Remarks this seems perfectly obvious. The evidences of the sea 

 having at one time advanced inland a long distance past the very 

 spot in which I now live can scarcely be gainsaid ; and Forth 

 and Clyde — by two separate branches — must at one time have 

 approached one another very much more closely than they now 

 do, and a comparatively narrow isthmus have been formed by at 

 least one of these two branches. As already remarked, it is 

 curious to find rare American and rare eastern species occurring 

 so frequently at localities on that line ; witness as the latest 

 record of importance that of the Pectoral Sandpiper, Tringa 

 maculatay Vieillot, at Loch Lomond, after continuous and scarcely 

 failing easterly winds, on Nov. 24th, 1882. 



Sir Geo. Leith Buchanan informs me that he believes that 

 the wind was north-west at the time he shot the Pectoral Sand- 

 piper, but this was local, as prevailing winds were easterly at 

 that time. Sir George also tells me of the other birds of rare 

 occurrence which he has met with at the same locality, but no 

 notes at the time were taken of wind. These are as follows ; — 



