252 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Short-eared Owl (Asia accipitrinus) as a Breeding Species in 

 the South of Scotland. With the view of endeavouring to estimate 

 the number of birds which may remain in parts of the South of 

 Scotland on suitable ground during the summer, we have been pay- 

 ing some attention to occurrences during last and the present seasons. 

 Not a bird was seen last summer; but during the past summer I 

 have seen three birds. The first occurrence was in Deloraine Shiel, 

 Ettrick, where Mr. W. Eagle Clarke and I saw a bird on 2ist June. 

 The second occasion was at Ericstane, Moffat, on nth August; and 

 the third at Carterhope, Tweedsmuir, on i5th August. I have not 

 seen a Field Vole either during the summer of 1894 or of the present 

 year, though I have passed over a considerable area of suitable 

 ground within the area of the recent "plague." PETER ADAIR, 

 Edinburgh. 



Hobby captured at Sea off the Firth of Forth. On the loth 

 of July I received in the flesh a fine adult male specimen of the 

 Hobby (Falco subbuteo), which had been captured while seeking rest 

 on a trawler at sea, about fifteen miles east of the Isle of May. 

 R. SMALL, Edinburgh. 



Montagu's Harrier in Lanarkshire. On the afternoon of 

 Saturday, 8th June, this year, a male specimen of Montagu's Harrier 

 (Circus cineraceus), not quite mature, was shot on Dungavel Hill, 

 Avondale Parish, Lanarkshire. The bird was sent to Mr. Blair, 

 Gordon Street, Glasgow, for preservation. I had an opportunity 

 of comparing it with some skins of the Hen Harrier in the posses- 

 sion of a local taxidermist, also with examples of both species of 

 Harrier in the reference collection in Kelvingrove Museum. JOHN 

 PATERSON, Glasgow. 



Inland Breeding of the Merganser in N.E. Scotland. On 



3rd June last I found a nest of the Merganser (Mergus serrator), on 

 a sandy island in the Spey at Cromdale, a point distant at least thirty 

 miles in a direct line from the sea. The nest was placed in a hollow 

 under a juniper-bush, and contained 14 eggs, slightly incubated. A 

 few of the eggs were of a different colour (greener) than the rest, 

 and may have been contributed by another bird. Five other Mer- 

 gansers, of which three were certainly drakes, were seen on the 

 river above and below the island. I am not aware whether the 

 Merganser has been hitherto recorded as nesting so far inland in the 

 East of Scotland. LIONEL W. HINXMAN, Edinburgh. 



White-fronted Goose in St. Kilda. The Rev. H. A. Macpherson 

 has presented to the collection of British Birds in the Museum of 

 Science and Art, Edinburgh, a fine adult male specimen of the 

 White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons), which was shot in St. Kilda 

 between the 6th and 22nd of June last by his keeper, Mr. Ellis 



