52 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



have been also seen on his property. He says, in a letter to Mr. 

 Tait, that his keeper could have shot them several times, but knew 

 that Sir Thomas would not wish it. " He saw one this morning 

 quite close to him" (November 6, 1906). I know that the Caper- 

 caillie had appeared in Fife, but this appearance of the bird to the 

 south of the Forth is new to me. I believe that the two birds seen 

 were both males. H. N. BONAR, Saltoun, Pencaitland. 



[Mr. William Evans tells us he has six records of Capercaillies in 

 Midlothian, including one shot in Bavelaw fir-wood nearly twenty 

 years ago. EDS.] 



Capereaillie in Dumfriesshire. A friend of mine who is 

 personally acquainted with the appearance of Capereaillie (Tetrao 

 urogallus) in Perthshire, when out shooting on the hills to the 

 N.N.W. of this county in November 1905, saw one cock and two 

 hen Capereaillie, just after a fall of snow. He tried to stalk them, 

 but they got up when out of shot, and flew off in a northerly direction. 

 This is I believe the furthest south that these birds have been 

 recorded the previous most southerly point being Tarbolton Moss, 

 in Ayrshire, of which occurrence I informed you, on p. 116, No. 58, 

 of the "Annals of Scot. Nat. Hist."--HuGH S. GLADSTONE, Thorn- 

 hill, Dumfriesshire. 



Capercaillies in Moray. It is interesting to record that Caper- 

 caillies (Tetrao urogallus} have now got up here, Elgin. Last year 

 there were certainly none ; but in the beginning of October one of 

 my keepers said he had seen a hen on the Binn Hill. I said it 

 must have been a Grey Hen. Afterwards, when looking for Woodcock 

 on the hill, we saw two cocks and a hen. The Binn Hill is a 

 wooded hill about 400 feet high, facing the sea. It is covered with 

 trees, mostly Scotch fir, some larch and spruce. The different 

 portions vary from 20 feet to 40 feet in height. Between it and 

 the sea there is a waste of stones separating belts of Scotch firs 

 about 40 feet high, with heather, juniper, and bracken underneath ; 

 and this was where we saw the birds. Altogether, I should say, 

 there are between four and five hundred acres of wood. I have 

 made inquiries among the neighbouring keepers, and hear that in 

 the Gordon Castle woods there are now, they think, about thirty 

 Capercaillies, and these are believed to have arrived last year. Last 

 week a cock was killed at Pluscarden, on the other side of Elgin, 

 and there are two more ( $ and 9 ) left. JAMES DAVIDSON, Elgin. 



Grey -Lag Goose in Ayrshire. A Grey -Lag Goose (Anser 

 cinerens), a young male, was shot near the Black Rocks, south of 

 Fairlie, on the evening of i3th November 1906, by Mr. Knox 

 Whyte. There was another bird in its company at the time. There 

 are a few old records of this species having been observed in the 

 Clyde Area, but the above appears to be the first specimen obtained. 

 ROBERT WILSON, Glasgow. 



