196 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



increasing in numbers and spreading in the north-eastern 

 counties of England. It was quite unknown in Northumber- 

 land at the date (i 843) when Mr. Yarrell gave to ornithologists 

 his famous " History of British Birds " ; but has, according 

 to Mr. George Bolam, of late years been increasing its range 

 northwards in that county, and is now known to breed some- 

 what regularly upon Tyneside, though in 1874, when the 

 late Mr. Hancock wrote his " Catalogue of the Birds of 

 Northumberland and Durham," it was but " a rare casual 

 visitant." Its advent, therefore, in Scotland as a colonist 

 was an extremely probable eventuality. That such an 

 immigration has actually taken place, the following record 

 of the capture of a particularly youthful specimen during the 

 summer of the present year would seem to indicate as more 

 than likely. 



For the following facts relating to the taking of a young 

 Hawfinch on his estate, I am indebted to Mr. Robert Dundas 

 of Arniston, Midlothian, who informs me that he found the 

 bird entangled in a net over a strawberry-bed on the 3rd of 

 August last, and that the bird, which was alive, was killed by 

 a terrier dog which accompanied him. From the immature 

 state of its plumage, Mr. Dundas was of opinion that the bird 

 must have been hatched in the neighbourhood, probably 

 in the glen immediately adjoining the garden. That neither 

 parents nor co-nestlings have been observed, Mr. Dundas 

 considers is not surprising, because the nature of the locality 

 is such that the birds would easily escape notice ; and, I 

 would add, there should be taken into consideration the well- 

 known shyness of the species, which always makes it most 

 difficult of observation. 



I have examined the bird, which is a very young male, 

 with the throat pale yellow, and I quite agree with Mr. 

 Dundas that it was doubtless bred not far from the garden 

 where it met with its untimely end. 



Mr. Dundas has presented the bird to the Scottish 

 National Collection in the Museum of Science and Art, 

 Edinburgh, and has issued orders to his gamekeepers that if 

 further Hawfinches are seen they are not on any account to 

 be molested. 



My friend Mr. Wm. Evans writes me : " I am extremely 



