ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 183 



season. Up to the 315! of May I have watched them regularly, and 

 a. few dates given show the times of their daily migration. 



8th March. Starlings crossed over at 6 P.M. 



yth April.- 7 P.M. 



1 7th April- 7.15 P.M. 



6th May. Between 8 and 9 P.M. the Starlings came over from 

 the island, having evidently been disturbed, but went back again. 



yth May. Starlings in large number at 7.15 P.M. Mr. Hogg 

 said they left the island that morning at 5 A.M. 



22nd and 23rd May. Crossed at 8 P.M. 



25th May. Starlings crossed at 9 P.M. (clear night). 



28th May. Between 8.10 and 8.45 nine different flocks passed 

 overhead. 



29th May. Mr. Hogg told me he saw the Starlings leaving the 

 island at 20 minutes past 3 in the morning. 



3oth May. Starlings seen crossing as late as 9.15. 



3ist May. Starlings were passing over to the island between 

 8.30 and 9 P.M. 



In connection with the foregoing it may be interesting to state 

 that my father remembers of the first pair of Starlings coming to 

 this neighbourhood. They nested in the ruins of old Barnbougle 

 Castle some forty years ago, and their appearance at that time 

 created much interest. CHAS. CAMPBELL, Dalmeny Park. 



Goldfinch in Claekmannanshire. On the igth of May last 

 (1900) I had the pleasure of watching a Goldfinch (Cardudis elegans) 

 bathing, within a few yards of me, in a ditch in Claekmannanshire. 

 It was apparently a male, and had, I have little doubt, a mate on 

 her nest not far off. WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



Tree Sparrow in Midlothian. About the i4th or i5th of 

 February last, while the second heavy fall of snow was still lying, 

 Mr. Nisbit, the farmer at Kingsknowes, was shooting Sparrows, which 

 with odd Finches and Starlings congregated at a potato-pit. Among 

 the Sparrows he had obtained I noticed one which seemed to me to 

 differ from the others, and on examining it I found it to be a Tree 

 Sparrow (Passer montanus). EDWIN ALEXANDER, Slateford. 



Red-backed Shrike in East Lothian. I saw a fine male Red- 

 backed Shrike (Lanius colhtrio) near Whitekirk Church on the 

 afternoon of the gth May. He was very tame, and I watched him 

 at close quarters for some time. He was mobbed for a short time 

 by a couple of Chaffinches. CHRISTOPHER C. TUNNARD, Tyning- 

 hame. 



Chiffehaff near Edinburgh. On the evening of 3oth May, I 

 twice heard the unmistakable notes of the Chiffehaff (Pkylloscopus 

 nifus) at Dreghorn, a suburb of Edinburgh. I have never before 

 detected this bird in the Edinburgh district, and Mr. William Evans 



