2 3 o ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



COMMON SANDPIPER, Totanus hypoleucos (L.) Common. Appears 

 earlier in the Glasgow district than it is generally supposed to 

 arrive in this country. Thus last year (1894) several were 

 seen at Dalbeth on i ith April ; this year (1895) as early as the 

 5th, and again in numbers on the loth. No doubt some of 

 these birds were in passage, but that the birds which nest here 

 arrive early is borne out by the following: 6th May 1893, 

 Loch Cochno, Kilpatrick Hills, nest with three eggs; nth May 

 1895, nest with two eggs at Ryat, in Mearns, and on same 

 date, at Fyn Loch (over 1000 feet elevation), in the Kilpatrick 

 Hills, nest with two eggs. The earliest occurrence of this 

 species that Mr. Macpherson mentions in his " Fauna of Lake- 

 land " is a single bird on nth April, and the earliest nest one 

 with a clutch of eggs on loth May. Professor Newton, " Dic- 

 tionary of Birds," part iii., 1894, says this species usually arrives 

 in May. 



REDSHANK, Totanus calidris (L.) Common. 



GREEN SANDPIPER, Totanus ochropus (L.) One shot on the Cart, 

 zoth November 1868, and another seen in its company, have 

 been recorded by Gray (" Birds of the West of Scotland," 

 P- 293)- 



GREENSHANK, Totanus canescens (Gm.) Gray has mentioned the 

 occurrence of this species at Mearns, and has expressed the 

 possibility of its nesting on the moor there. This has not 

 been confirmed, although the bird has been seen by Mr. Morris 

 Young, and Mr. Gilmour shot one on the 4th of August last 

 year (1894). 



COMMON CURLEW, Numenius arqiwta (L.) Common. 



TERN, Sterna ? Terns have been shot on Balgray, but we 



have no information as to the species. 



BLACK-HEADED GULL, Larus ridibnndus, L. At Harelaw, on the 

 borders of our district, the great colony of Black-headed Gulls 

 described by Gray (" Birds of the West of Scotland," p. 476) still 

 maintains its position. A few have bred at Binend Loch, and 

 about ten years ago many bred on an island in the Brother 

 Loch, but owing to disturbance they have not succeeded in 

 establishing a colony there. 



COMMON GULL, Larus canus, L. Once observed in the Recreation 

 Ground, Queen's Park, in winter. 



HERRING GULL, Larus argentatus, Gm. So far as we know, it is 

 only in recent winters that this species has become a common 

 visitor to fields in this district in mid-winter, sometimes to the 

 number of several hundreds of birds together. 



