Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/310

282 the heather; even the Red Grouse is scarce as a breeding bird upon the moors which lie adjacent to the foreshores. The numbers of the very Dunlins that nest in the tussocks of the salt-marshes have grown fewer within our own recollection.

But there is no material change in the numbers of migratory birds which appear in the neighbourhood of the Firth at different seasons of the year, and close study has enabled us to gauge of their movements with greater accuracy than would have been possible formerly.

Ornithologists have their share of "hopes deferred," and the writer has to own to many disappointments. Though it is believed that Anthus cervinus has twice occurred in the neighbourhood of the Firth in spring plumage, no specimen has ever been secured. A Black-throated Wheatear of some description has visited the vicinity of the Solway Firth in three different springs, but no final proof of its identity has been obtained. Several other species are still excluded from the ornis of this region, because their identification, in spite of much labour, is still lacking. But the data at the disposal of the writer extend over so long a period, that he feels justified in offering for consideration the following observations:—

1. The Absence, or exceptional Presence, of North American Birds.—The arms of the Solway Firth extend in a south-westerly direction into the Irish Sea, an area swept by heavy gales and frequent hurricanes. It would not be unreasonable to expect that such common Passerine forms as Turdus migratorius or Loxia leucoptera might occasionally be transported by some ocean liner to within a reasonable distance of the Firth, and be driven ashore; but the only species that have been reported to the writer as captured at sea represented such familiar Palæarctic species as Fringilla cœlebs, F. montifringilla, or Turtur communis. We cannot even claim that Tringa maculata has occurred within our precise limits, often as that bird has been killed in Britain. Macrorhamphus griseus and Tryngites rufescens have occurred in single instances, but very far up the Firth, and only in the month of September. Of the Anatidæ, Œdemia perspicillata has only once been obtained in the vicinity of the Solway. Querquedula discors has once occurred in Dumfriesshire, at no great distance from the Solway Firth.