54 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



The Tree Sparrow (Passer montanns) is another rather un- 

 common bird in the Border district. Here, however, it has come, 

 at least, for several years, usually in January. Last January, on a 

 bright sunny morning, one might have been heard singing his 

 comparatively sweet, lilting song in a bush close to the avenue. 

 Before the bird was seen, the notes were thought to be the low 

 broken warblings of a very early Thrush. During the nesting 

 season a pair successfully reared two broods in bird boxes set up on 

 trees quite near the house. The birds, through the perfect security 

 they enjoy, have grown a good deal tamer. At first, the slightest 

 alarm was enough to send them high into the air, and they evidently 

 flew some distance away. Now they feed freely in a food-box 

 among the trees with the other Common Sparrows. This October 

 Tree-Sparrows have been seen constantly. 



Goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis) are said to nest near Melrose. 

 Here they come occasionally in winter, and have been seen by 

 myself as well as others among the seeds by the roadside. A local 

 roadman who is interested in them as cage birds saw a flock of 

 twenty last winter close to the road where he wrought. WM. 

 M'CONACHIE, The Manse, Lauder. 



Bullfinches, Mealy Redpolls, and Crossbills in Scotland. 

 Among the chief incidents of interest to ornithologists in Scotland, 

 during the past autumn, were the visits of numbers of the large Con- 

 tinental race of the Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) and the hordes of 

 Mealy Redpolls (Acanthis linaria). The Bullfinches were reported 

 from Unst (Dr. Edmonston Saxby), Lerwick (Mr. J. S. Tulloch), and 

 Fair Isle, in Shetland ; and the Misses Baxter and Rintoul record them 

 from the Isle of May. They seem to have first been noticed on 24th 

 October, and in some localities as many as ten were seen on single days. 

 The Redpolls were even more widely distributed, and were in vast 

 numbers ; indeed so many were taken by bird-catchers that no sale 

 for them could be effected. These birds were first reported on 

 1 6th October, and afterwards in abundance. Among them were 

 some numbers of Holboll's Redpoll (A. linaria holboelli). The 

 Shetlands were again visited by Crossbills (Loxia curvirostrd) in 

 some numbers. They were first detected on 2oth June, and were 

 under notice until i Qth September. Several were seen by me, all of 

 which belonged to the Continental race. WM. EAGLE CLARKE. 



The Waxwing in Haddingtonshire. On 25th November a 

 Waxwing (Ampelis garrulus) was taken alive near the village of 

 Tranent. When first observed it was feeding on a wild rose-bush, 

 when a well-directed stone partially stunned the bird, and enabled a 

 boy to secure it. The bird was given to me the following day, and 

 is now (November 2Qth) alive and fairly healthy. It is in all 

 probability an old bird, if one may judge by the deep black throat 

 and the gloss on the plumage. The wax-like tips to the secondaries 



