ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 115 



make themselves at home within a few hundred yards of the 

 mansion-house, and in view of people constantly passing along the 

 shore. HERBERT MAXWELL, Whauphill. 



Pochard (Fuligula ferina) on the River Carron, Stirlingshire. 

 Although this bird is common enough on the Firth of Forth, and 

 probably breeds within the area, in all my experience of this part of 

 the district I do not remember to have ever met with the Pochard 

 upon the river Carron or Bonny until to-day, the gth January 

 1894, when I shot a fine male J. A. HARVIE-BROWN. 



Smew in Aberdeenshire. On the i6th January 1894 a 

 female Smew (Mergus albellus, Linn.) was shot on the Don, near 

 Fintray. Its stomach contained a large number of aquatic insects, 

 and small pieces of quartz. G. SIM, Aberdeen. 



Stock Dove (Columba anas) in West Lothian. When shooting 

 Wood Pigeons (Columba palumbus) on iyth February near 

 Cramond in the county of West Lothian, I was fortunate enough to 

 secure a Stock Dove. I may mention this is the first specimen I 

 have observed in the district. BRUCE CAMPBELL, Edinburgh. 



Stock Dove (Columba ocnas) in Forfarshire. On the i4th of 

 December, two Stock Doves (one male, one not dissected), were 

 shot to the west of the town, about a mile inland. Though I have 

 been carefully on the outlook for this species for over two years, 

 this is the only case of their occurrence here of which I have learnt. 

 -T. F. DEWAR, Arbroath. 



The Stock Dove (Columba anas) in West Ross-shire. Mr. 

 Harvie-Brown's very interesting paper in the January number seems 

 to imply that the Stock Dove is little, if at all, known as a bird of 

 the North-West Highlands. It may therefore be worth while to 

 record the fact that in late August or early September 1877 I shot 

 a specimen close to the shooting-lodge of Dorisduan, Kintail, West 

 Ross, and frequently saw birds of this species while fishing the River 

 Croe. I cannot, of course, speak with any confidence upon the 

 question of their having bred thereabouts, or immigrated after the 

 nesting season ; but the comparatively early time of year and the 

 tolerable frequency of their occurrence make it quite as likely as not 

 that they had been resident throughout the summer. Is it not 

 probable that in many cases there are, so to speak, "cycles" of 

 bird-occurrence, i.e. that a migratory species visits a given district in 

 yearly increasing numbers, and then, for reasons which we do not 

 yet know, diminishes, at length ceasing to arrive at all ? EDWARD 

 S. MARSHALL. 



[These records of first occurrences of the Stock Dove are useful 

 and interesting. That the bird should have been found in West 

 Ross-shire is a surprise ; and it does not appear to have come under 

 the notice of other observers either before or since. EDS.] 



