1 84 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



indeed they were at times. I have not seen or handled a single 

 example of the Bean or Pink Foot, although I have reports of such. 

 But so few sportsmen or gunners have distinguished betwixt the 

 various species, that an identification, except on authority, should 

 be received with scepticism. Practically no impression was made 

 on the numbers of Geese present by the many gunners who made 

 trial of their powers of stalking. But the birds became extremely 

 timid and wary. A well-known gunner wrote to the local news- 

 papers on the approach of close time to protest against the 

 " absurdity " of protecting these preternaturally wary fowl as they 

 the birds could do it so effectively themselves ! Our long green 

 merses and interminable flats afford no cover, and the peculiar 

 atmosphere that hangs over the Solway on winter days seems actually 

 to magnify the form and render more visible the crawling, crouching 

 body of the would-be shooter. ROBERT SERVICE, Maxwelltown. 



Marked Pintail. I have been handed a ring taken from the 

 leg of a female Pintail shot by a gunner friend near Carsethorn, at 

 the estuary of the Nith, about the iyth of February. The ring is a 

 plain roughly-cut band of soft zinc which clasps by means of catch 

 and notch, and is stamped " 1908." Pintails have been rather 

 frequent in the Solway waters this winter, the first being reported 

 from Baldoon Sands in Wigtownshire on gth October, and the last 

 from Southerness on 28th February. No others with rings were 

 reported. ROBERT SERVICE, Maxwelltown. 



Nesting of the Gadwall in Scotland. Early in June of this year 

 two nests of the Gadwall (Anas streperus) were found on a loch in 

 the S.E. of Scotland. They were placed among rushes about 50 yards 

 away from the water's edge, and contained 5 and 7 eggs respectively. 

 The Duck was seen going off the nest, and specimens of the 

 eggs and down were sent to Mr. Eagle Clarke who confirmed the 

 identification. The down contained several unmistakable breast 

 feathers of the female Gadwall. This is the second authenticated 

 case of the Gadwall nesting in Scotland. It is to be hoped that 

 many more instances of the nesting of this interesting Duck may be 

 recorded in the near future. LEONORA JEFFREY RINTOUL and 

 EVELYN V. BAXTER. 



Long-tailed Ducks in Orkney in Summer. During the whole of 

 the summer of 1905 a pair of Long-tailed Ducks (Harelda glacialis), 

 male and female, remained on the Loch of Stenness, Orkney ; 

 another pair were there in July and August 1906, and hardly a 

 summer passes but one or two pairs remain behind. Probably they 

 are pricked birds unable to make their migration journey owing to 

 their injuries, and one at least of these has even been in its winter 

 plumage then, without doubt owing to this cause. It is very unlikely 

 that such birds would nest there owing to their condition. They 

 leave Orkney about the middle of April as a rule, and have then 



