50 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Glossy Ibis in Islay. An immature female Glossy Ibis (Plegadis 

 falcinellus] was shot at Kildalton, Islay, on 3oth October, and is 

 now in the collection of Mr. Jain Ramsay, Kildalton. CHARLES 

 KIRK, Glasgow. 



Note on Migrating 1 Wild Ducks. I occasionally see birds pass 

 the disc of the sun, or the moon, when I happen to be looking at 

 these bodies at certain times of the year. On the evening of i2th 

 September (time being eleven minutes past nine) I noted the most 

 satisfactory observation of this kind that I have ever made. I was 

 looking at the sunrise upon the mountains extending out into the 

 small unilluminated portion of the moon's eastern hemisphere, when 

 a flock of birds passed across the moon in an instant. They were 

 wild ducks, and nine, perhaps ten, were upon the disc at once. 

 The direction of flight was S.S.W. by S. The instrument I was 

 using is an 8|-inch reflector, and the power I had on was 60. I 

 had about two-thirds of the moon's image in view, and it filled 

 the whole field. A calculation of the distance and height of the 

 birds was in the circumstances rather difficult, depending almost 

 entirely upon estimation. Upon the whole, I think they would be 

 nearly five miles distant, and about 3000 feet high. R. SERVICE, 

 Maxwelltown. 



Velvet Scoter Inland. On 2gth October last I received a fine 

 old male Velvet Scoter (CEdemia fused) that had been shot the 

 same morning by the side of the Nith below Dumfries, and some 

 five or six miles from the open firth. That it had not long left the 

 sea was shown by the fact that its stomach was crammed with 

 shells of Tellina. I have known the Common Scoter to occasion- 

 ally visit the large inland lochs of Galloway just about the time of 

 the spring migration, but this is the first local occurrence inland of 

 the Velvet Scoter that I have met with. R SERVICE, Maxwelltown. 



Little Stint in the Island of Coll. On making further inquiry 

 regarding the occurrence of Tringa minuta in Coll, alluded to in the 

 last number of the "Annals" (1901, p. 251), I find that they were 

 observed, and specimens obtained late in February, not in March 

 as previously stated. The keeper says he only saw them at one 

 place the sandy beach of Crossapol. L. H. IRBY, London. 



Black-tailed Godwits in Tiree. One shot in Tiree by Mr. 

 Peter Anderson was sent in the flesh in August. Mr. Anderson 

 writes me as follows : " Black-tailed Godwits are not at all very rare 

 in Tiree on migration. I see some of them nearly every year either 

 in spring or autumn, but I never see more than four together. 

 There were three in that party (two of them rusty on breast, the 

 other not rusty), out of which I shot the bird sent. It is one thing to 

 see Black-tailed Godwits, and quite another thing to get near enough 



