122 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



ference for cooked food to anything else, unless perhaps a dead 

 mouse, which they take with avidity. I have not heard before of 

 Herons so tame, but perhaps some of your readers may have had a 

 like experience. The Common Moor or Water Hens (Gallimtla 

 chloropits) have also been very tame this winter, mixing and feeding 

 with the poultry, and taking kindly to oats, which perhaps may be 

 an acquired taste. A. ELLIOT, Caverton, Roxburgh. 



Bitterns in Stirlingshire. During the severe weather towards 

 the end of December last, several Bitterns (Botaunts stellaris) were 

 seen, and one shot, on the Carron near Denny. J. A. HARVIE-BROWN. 



The Bittern in Ayrshire. Although Messrs. Gray and Anderson 

 stated that the Bittern (Botaunts stellaris) was " of very rare and 

 uncertain occurrence " in Ayrshire (" Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow," 

 i. p. 303), during the past decade I have learned of the occurrence 

 of seven examples in that county, all so far unrecorded in scientific 

 journals, I believe. Two were shot in 1890 at Dalmellington, and 

 one at Doonfoot in 1891, as I was informed some years ago by 

 Mr. W. C. S. Fergusson, Ayr. Another, which had been killed at 

 Doonfoot " recently," was exhibited to the Andersonian Naturalists' 

 Society on ist November 1893. Mr. Charles Berry has one in his 

 collection, which he shot near Lendalfoot in January 1890 or 1891, 

 I think. Mr. Matthew Barr has kindly sent me word of a pair ( ? 

 and (?), shot near Ayr early in January this year, which had been 

 sent for exhibition by a taxidermist in Kilmarnock to the meeting 

 of the Glenfield Ramblers' Society, Kilmarnock, on 23rd January.- 

 JOHN PATERSON, Glasgow. 



Bittern in Nairn. A Bittern was seen on loth January 1900, 

 about four miles above the mouth of the river Nairn, by Mr. H. E. 

 Pope. It was standing in the river bed, which at that point is 

 rather broad, among some dead branches and rubbish. T. E. 

 BUCKLEY, Inverness. 



Gray Geese on the Solway Firth. The Gray Lag and W hite- 

 fronted Geese (Anser ferns and A. albifrons) are comparatively rare 

 visitors to the salt marshes of the Solway Firth ; but only experts 

 can be expected to identify young specimens of our Gray Geese. A 

 specimen of Anser albifrons, which, being immature, was first reported 

 to me as a Gray Lag, was shot on one of the marshes on 3oth 

 January 1898. I do not think that I have recorded it previously. 

 But on 22nd December 1899 two undoubted Gray Lag Geese, 

 young birds, were shot near Silloth, out of a gaggle of five birds. 

 They had the following soft parts : upper mandible, pinky flesh- 

 colour ; unguis, white tinged with dusky ; legs and toes, orange 

 yellow, with white claws. I had one of them mounted for the 

 Carlisle Museum, which previously possessed only one specimen, 

 and that a fine adult. H. A. MACPHERSON, Pitlochry. 



