ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 253 



observed again, though traces of fresh damage clone by them still 

 continued. The ruined pods presented quite a different appearance 

 from others beside them attacked by Tits and Sparrows, some of 

 them hanging in shreds. Generally the birds visited the garden 

 in the early morning and from five to seven at night. WM. 

 M'CONACHIE, The Manse, Lauder. 



The Hawfinch in Galloway. As a Galloway species the 

 Hawfinch has long had a place, but the records are few and far- 

 between. It was got near Newton-Stewart about 1868 or 1869. 

 Another one was procured in the same locality in 1878. A third 

 specimen was found in Cally Park on the morning of i2th December 

 1883, having been whipped down by the branches of a fallen tree 

 overthrown by the great gale of the previous night. A Hawfinch 

 was seen in the park opposite Kirkconnell about six years ago. In 

 the same parish a couple were seen by a most capable observer at 

 the end of last October. And now it is a great pleasure to record 

 the capture of a fine example at The Grove Gardens on 9th April. 

 It was trapped in an ordinary spring trap quite accidentally, and 

 sent to me same day. It is a fine large brightly plumaged 

 specimen, and looked like a male, but dissection proved it to be a 

 female. In Dumfriesshire the bird is no better known, and has 

 only occurred singly in the same casual way. Outside our area, 

 at localities not very far off, it is showing a strong tendency to 

 increase in numbers and extension of range. R. SERVICE, 

 Maxwelltown. 



Probable nesting- of the White Wagtail in N. W. Highlands. 

 In the middle of July, while staying at Killilan I saw two White 

 Wagtails (Motacilla alba). One of them had food in its bill as if it 

 were going to feed its young. It was sitting on the ridge of a house 

 and was quite close to me. The other was seen close to the school- 

 house. P. ANDERSON, Tiree. 



Probable breeding of Blue-headed Wagtail near Aberdeen. 

 It may interest ornithologists to hear that a pair of Blue-headed 

 Wagtails (Motarilla flava) frequented some links not far from 

 Aberdeen, this summer. I saw one of them, the male, first on 

 30th May, near the mouth of a burn that flows across the links a 

 few miles north of here. I was able to get a very good view of it, and 

 the following is the description as I wrote it down on the spot : 



" Crown and nape blue-grey, a light streak over-and-behind eye, 

 wings brownish with two light bars on the coverts, and light margins 

 to quills, tail black or dark with conspicuous white edges, back 

 greenish olive, greener on rump, under-parts yellow tinged with 

 green. Bill and legs dark." On subsequent occasions I watched 

 both the birds with a better field-glass, frequently at a distance of 

 only a very few yards, and noticed that the two outer pairs of tail- 

 feathers in the male were white, the rest black, while the light 



