248 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Gannet at Lighthouse, Butt of Lewis. - - Robert Clyne 

 (" A.S.N.H.," 1911, p. 69) remarks on the passing of Gannets, at the 

 Butt of Lewis. He understands the passing S.W. in spring of 

 continuous flocks when they are probably resorting to their usual 

 breeding haunts, but why the majority should pass daily in a S.W. 

 direction during the summer puzzles him. There really is no 

 mystery about it whatever, and every fisherman knows about it whether 

 he be East or West Coast. As many people are unaware, it is the 

 East Coast people who follow the herring, not the West Coast 

 inhabitants, and it is greatly by the well-known and understood 

 motions of the Gannets that these fishermen are enabled to know 

 of the arrival of herrings on west and east sides of the country. 

 Some Gannets also range after mackerel when that other abundant 

 species swarms on our shores in latter half of July, August, etc. 

 Even in October off the Isle of May, when mackerel have become 

 scarce and have returned to deeper water and grown to a larger size, 

 even then Gannets may be seen plunging not for herring, 

 but for mackerel. J. A. HARVIE-BROWN. 



Wood Sandpiper (Totanus glareola] in Fifeshire. I have 

 been asked to record in the "Annals" the occurrence of a Wood 

 Sandpiper, at the Morton Lochs, near Tentsmuir, Fifeshire, on 

 ist August last. These lochs artificial fishing lochs surrounded 

 in normal seasons by a good deal of marshy ground, are situated 

 within half a mile of the Tay estuary, and are very attractive to 

 waders and to wild fowl of all sorts. 



On the day in question, the bird, a female, and I believe a bird 

 of this year, rose from a shallow pool near these lochs, calling loudly 

 as it rose. The note was entirely new to me ; but as the bird, 

 though out of range from me, flew somewhat in the direction of my 

 friend, Mr. Hog of Newliston, who was shooting with me that day, 

 I called out to him to secure it if possible, and this, by a remarkably 

 long shot, he was able to do. The bird has been presented to the 

 Royal Scottish Museum. 



Authentic records of the occurrence of the Wood Sandpiper in 

 Scotland are few. It has been met with rather more often in 

 England, and has even been known to breed there (see Yarrell, iii. 

 464-5); but on this side of the border, since the three or four 

 occurrences recorded by Gray in the " Birds of the West of Scot- 

 land," which mostly date from the early fifties of last century, the 

 bird does not appear to have been obtained at all, until ist Sept. 

 1902, when one was shot in the Orkneys (" Zool." vi. 391). The 

 reputed breeding of the bird near Elgin in 1853, as recorded in 

 the "Ibis" for 1865, and generally since, is sufficiently dealt with 

 in Mr. Evans's article in this Journal last year (" Annals," xix. p. 74). 

 Other records of the bird in such books as I happen to have beside 

 me here, including Harvie-Brown's " Moray Basin and Tay," seem 



