ii2 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Beside those above recorded in Assynt, I am likewise informed 

 of at least four others obtained at Inverpolly by the keeper there. 

 My informants are my cousin Chas. Blunt, who resides at Baden, 

 Tarbert, and Mr. Jas. S. Henderson, Ullapool. One was obtained 

 by Mr. Henderson himself on the 22nd January, and the others were 

 obtained about the same time. J. A. HARVIE-BROWN, Dunipace. 



Common Seal in the Tay. A Seal (P. vifu/ina) was captured 

 in the Tay, near Stanley, above Perth, 2ist January. The specimen 

 was a male, very fat and in plump condition, and is probably the 

 same individual which has been seen from time to time near Perth 

 during the past four or five weeks. ALEX. M. RODGER, Perth. 



Bird Notes from the Solway District. THE LESSER REDPOLL 

 (Linota rufescens\ A NEW TRAIT. For the last month or more I 

 have been interested in noting a new habit on the part of the 

 Lesser Redpoll. A small party of over a dozen of these Redpolls 

 have been located in our nursery grounds since about November. 

 In December several large beds were sown with seed of the 

 Common Birch (Betula alba}. Following the usual practice in 

 nurseries, this seed is very lightly, or scarcely at all, covered with 

 soil, so that it practically lies on the surface. Recently some of the 

 Redpolls found this out, and first one pair only, subsequently the 

 whole party, have since been busy when the surface of the soil 

 became dry, which, however, it has only seldom been. I am 

 describing this new habit of eating sown seed on the part of the 

 Lesser Redpoll merely as a student of birds and not as a nursery- 

 man, otherwise I should have had to point out a very obvious 

 remedy ! But for all the little damage this small party have been 

 doing, I have not molested them. It is quite another thing when, 

 later in the season, hosts of Greenfinches, Chaffinches, and Sparrows 

 descend upon the sown pine seeds. GREAT GREY SHRIKE 

 (Lanins excubitor). Mr. Norman Menzies of Newtonairds sent me a 

 fine young male Shrike on 28th December last. It had been shot 

 on the previous day by Mr. Menzies. The bird was of the typical 

 double-spotted form. This species, formerly of regular annual 

 winter occurrence here, has now become decidedly scarce, the last I 

 heard of having been got seven years ago. GREATER SPOTTED 

 WOODPECKER (Dendrocopus major). It is not yet too late to put on 

 record a rather remarkable occurrence of this species in two 

 localities in Solway, a notice of which I have purposely refrained 

 from mentioning earlier. During the months of February, March, 

 and April, some strange sounds were heard in the woods of 

 Southwick and in Kirkcudbrightshire, and caused a considerable 

 amount of talk and speculation, no one, except some interested 

 parties who were early initiated into the mystery, being able to 

 account for them. During the same period an exactly similar 



