Ixxiv 



FAUNAL AREA AND ITS POSITION. 



stated — from the north-east towards the south-west, and not from 

 more direct east to west. But even if the flights are more from east 

 to west — as I have observed them to he during three weeks spent on the 

 Isle of May in October 1884, and that in all vnnds — even then, owing 

 to the flatness and featureless configuration of the land south of the 

 Tay estuary, Tay can scarcely claim to be so great a " receiver " as 

 Forth, because the former is not so wide. 



Hence my difficulty in placing a definite value upon the Bell Rock 

 as a " stepping-stone " or " resting place " of migrants from oversea. 



The Isle of May appears to me a more likely position for many 

 reasons to " catch up " migrants, whether the main drift come from 

 the north-east in a broad wave or a " compressed fan," and then turn 

 when still at sea, or come on a more direct course from east to west 

 right across the North Sea. But the fact remains that all arrivals 

 seen by me and the late Mr. George Patterson during a three weeks' 

 study of the migration there in October 1884, stream in over the 

 South Xess of the island, and none were seen to arrive from any 

 other direction ; and they always came in their broadest phalanxes 

 when the wind was east or south of east, and " under their tails " ; 

 and at these times they also came with greatest force.^ It may 

 well remain for the intelligent reader and student of migration 

 to arrive at conclusions as to which route is the dominant one 

 when he comes to consider the accumulations of facts brought 

 together in the following catalogue raisonne, as well as a study 

 of our remarks in the previous volumes of this series. Not having 

 had access to the original schedules returned from the Bell Rock 

 for a number of years, I have been unable to quote these in this 

 connection. Without some correct appreciation of the nurnbers 

 of the different species observed at certain dates, I find it is quite 

 impossible to arrive at definite conclusions beyond what I have 

 already indicated. 



^ It has been argued that should an observer stationed in the lautern-room of a 

 lighthouse hear a bird strike heavily upon the outside of the dome, say on the south- 

 east side, it cannot be decided whether the bird came full force and full flight, or had 

 circled first, and come back, like Ducks alighting breast to wind. But I doubt that 

 being essentially a difficulty. (See under Woodcock, infra^ as an example of my 

 meaning.) I incline to a different opinion. 



