ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 123 



place for fully a week, but would not allow a near approach. It 

 was evidently a male, as its colours were better denned than were 

 the colours of the specimen secured. D. BRUCE, Dunbar. 



Shorelarks near Aberlady, East Lothian. On gth February 

 last (1895) I went along the shore from Longniddry to Gullane Ness, 

 with the express purpose of looking for shorelarks (Otocorys alpestris), 

 and was lucky enough to find two, both of which I secured. They 

 were feeding at tide-mark in a small bay a mile or so to the east of 

 the rocks known locally as " Jovie's Neuk," that is, about three 

 miles east of the village of Aberlady. The taxidermist to whom 

 they were sent for preservation states that one is a male, but the 

 sex of the other he could not make out. D. PERCY AITKEN, 

 Dunbar. 



Hoopoe in Peeblesshire. Some time ago I saw, in the hands 

 of Mr. Hope, taxidermist, George Street, a Hoopoe (Upupa epops) 

 which he had received in the flesh from Peeblesshire in the spring 

 of 1893. On inquiry I have since ascertained that the bird was 

 shot at Edston Farm Pond, about two miles from Peebles, on 22nd 

 April in the year mentioned, by Robert Gilchrist, gamekeeper. 

 WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



Roller in Aberdeenshire. A fine specimen of the Roller 

 (Coracias garrulus] was shot in the parish of Cruden, four miles from 

 Peterhead, on June 1893, and was mounted by a local taxidermist. 

 I had heard about this specimen some time ago, but have only 

 recently been able to obtain particulars of its capture. WILLIAM 

 SERLE, Peterhead. 



Barn Owl in Caithness. A female Barn Owl (Strix flammed] 

 a rare bird in North Caithness was shot by the Forss keeper at 

 Crosskirk, on the 5th of January. It was " bolted " from a rabbits' 

 burrow by a ferret. LEWIS DUNBAR, Thurso. 



On the Tufted Duck in South -West Scotland. Mr. R. H. 



Read's contribution to the October number of the " Annals," on the 

 nesting of the Tufted Duck (Fuligula cristata) in East Renfrewshire, 

 I have read with much interest. My excursions to the lochs in that 

 district, though numerous, have hitherto been confined almost entirely 

 to the winter and spring months ; and though the occurrence of this 

 duck had not been overlooked, it had been mixed up (not for the 

 first time) with the Golden-eye. As Mr. Read indicates, the Tufted 

 Duck abounds even in the breeding season, and is now one of the 

 most common birds of the district. There are many localities, how- 

 ever, in the South-West still not colonised by this species, and in 

 illustration of this, I may say that I visited, in June 1893, Loch Moan 

 in Ayrshire and Loch Trool in Kirkcudbrightshire without seeing 

 it; while in June of 1894 I was at Lochs Ken, Harrow, Dungeon, 



