ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 51 



Note on a Young 1 Gannet. A strange bird visited Strathmore 

 at the latter end of September, and was fed wholly on mice ; indeed, 

 it would take nothing else. It only lived for a fortnight, and little 

 wonder. Its identity puzzled the person with whose fowls the bird 

 associated. The colour of the plumage was different to anything 

 he had previously seen in the vicinity. Feathers of the bird were 

 brought to me after it had been dead a fortnight. Failing to 

 identify it from the feathers, I cycled up to see its remains, and 

 was surprised to find it to be a Gannet, in first year's plumage. 

 Seldom, indeed, are Gannets of this age seen in Lochbroom and 

 why I cannot conceive. Never were there more mature birds of 

 this species seen in Lochbroom than this year, and rarely was 

 there a better herring fishing in the loch than in the past autumn. 

 -J. T. HENDERSON, Lochbroom. 



Early Nesting of the Shag 1 . This year the Shags (Phalacrocorax 



graculus] started nesting remarkably early in Orkney. They com- 

 menced building their nests in January, and the first eggs were 

 found on 24th February, on the Island of Sule Skerry. The 

 weather during these months was very stormy, but not cold, and 

 perhaps this latter fact had something to do with their early nesting, 

 which was much earlier than had ever been known in Orkney before. 

 H. W. ROBINSON, Lansdowne House, Lancaster. 



Nesting 1 of the Quail in Scotland. - - Mr. Harvie - Brown's 

 editorial to Mr. H. N. Bonar's note upon the Quail (Coturnix com- 

 munis) nesting in East Lothian during the late most inclement 

 summer ("Annals," October 1907, p. 248) is apt to be misunder- 

 stood by persons who have not studied the habits of this desirable 

 little bird or followed the records of its visits to the United Kingdom. 

 It does not follow that the East Lothian Quails had any connection 

 with those turned down in Stirlingshire. Quails turn up in the 

 most unlikely places and at uncertain times. Who, for example, 

 would have expected Quails to nest in Fair Isle ? Yet Mr. Eagle 

 Clarke obtained eleven eggs in that diminutive and remote island 

 in 1905. When I was a boy, about the year 1855, Quails were 

 quite common and resident in Galloway. I was told that they had 

 appeared in quantities after a great gale in 1839, and partridge 

 shooters seldom returned without a few Quail in the bag. But they 

 gradually diminished in numbers, becoming rare after 1862, and I 

 have not seen one on the wing since about 1874. There is prob- 

 ably nothing unsuitable in British soil or climate to the nature of 

 Quails. The chief cause for its irregular appearance seems to be the 

 position of these islands, lying outside the regular track of migration ; 

 wherefore only wanderers or storm - driven flocks find their way 

 hither. All their needs for feeding and breeding may be satisfied ; 

 they may remain stationary for several seasons ; but sooner or later 

 the inveterate impulse comes upon them ; away they go to winter 



