130 REPORT ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 
and ceasing with cyclonic depressions. These great barometric 
changes are also frequently accompanied by equally great 
changes in temperature, and this may be the cause of the 
mists which so commonly prevail on “a migration night.” 
It would be well if a summary of all the sections of the re- 
ports could be submitted to a competent meteorologist. This, 
it is thought, would result in a few years in establishing a better 
understanding of the relationship which exists between the 
weather and the great movements of birds. 
It cannot be said that the southerly flow of autumn migrants 
is evenly distributed along the entire west coast of England, 
though such appears to be commonly the case on the east coast. 
On the contrary, the schedules again afford unmistakable evi- 
dence that the great majority of these migrants are observed 
at stations south of Anglesey. But while the north-west section 
of the coast is thus less favoured than the rest, such is not 
the case with the Isle of Man, which comes in for an important 
share of the west coast migratory movements. Now, since it 
is a well-established fact that large masses of migrants from 
Northern Europe, along with others from the Faroes, Iceland, 
and Greenland, pass down the west coast of Scotland, whence 
many cross to Ireland, it seems probable, from the evidence 
borne by the English West Coast returns, that the majority of 
the remainder leave Scotland at some point on the Wigtown 
coast, and pass to the west coast of Wales by way of the Isle of 
Man, and thus avoid the English shores of the Irish Sea.} 
Whether this is a reasonable and likely explanation, or not, the 
fact remains that the schedules for the years 1884 and 1885? 
received from the coasts of Flint, Cheshire, Lancashire, and 
Cumberland—and they are among the most faithfully kept— 
make it evident that during those seasons comparatively few of 
the ordinary migrants were observed there, and that the great 
general movements did not affect them in any considerable 
degree. 
The migratory movements of such partially resident species 
1The remarks do not apply to migrants among the Limicole and Anseres, 
which, as a rule, religiously follow coast lines, and which are abundantly repre- 
sented on the Solway and coasts of Cumberland and Lancashire. 
2 The scarcity or entire absence of migratory birds at St Bees is remarked upon 
in the Reports for 1880 and 1881. 
