44 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



window that looks on the lawn, when a Wagtail alighted. It came 

 frequently within two yards of the window, and I easily identified it. 

 On going outside I saw three wagtails on the roof, but could not 

 identify them. I raised the White Wagtail that was running 

 familiarly on the lawn, and it joined the three on the roof. I see 

 by the "Scottish Naturalist" of July 1891 that A. H. Evans, in his 

 list of birds of Melrose district, says (p. 107): "White Wagtail 

 not observed nearer than the border between Berwickshire and 

 Haddington." Nenthorn Manse is near the Eden Water, about 

 four miles north from Kelso. WILLIAM SERLE, Leith. 



Swift (Cypselus apus) in November. I was rather astonished 

 to see a Swift flying about here, in Haddington, on the forenoon of 

 the 1 6th November. I watched the bird for nearly an hour, and 

 wondered where it had been during the late severe frosts. JOHN 

 MILLER, Haddington. 



Occurrence of the Hoopoe, and of a Buff-eoloured variety of 

 the Snipe, in the Tay Basin. A fine male specimen of the Hoopoe 

 Upupa epops (a bird of the year) was shot at Birkhill, on the south 

 bank of the Tay, by Harry Wedderburn, Esq., younger of Birkhill, on 

 the 8th of October last (1892). When first noticed, the bird was 

 flying high in the air over a potato field, and finally lit on a wire 

 fence adjoining, but was shortly lost sight of. Mr. Wedderburn on 

 crossing the field and approaching the spot where the bird was last 

 seen, put up a partridge and fired at it ; on the report of the shot, 

 the Hoopoe immediately arose from among the potatoes at some 

 considerable distance, and was killed with the second barrel. From 

 the muddy state of the bill and feet of the bird, and the soft nature 

 of the ground, it was evidently on the feed, occupying the ground it 

 would most naturally do, being in the close vicinity of trees and open 

 woods. This was the first time the bird had been seen about, but 

 from its plump appearance and healthy state I should say it had 

 been in the neighbourhood for some few days. Mr. Wedderburn 

 most kindly sent me at once the bird in the flesh, and I have since had 

 the pleasure of placing it in the Perthshire Society's (Natural Science) 

 now valuable collection of the local birds of the Tay Basin. I have 

 further to place on record the capture of a beautifully marked variety 

 of the Common Snipe (Gallinago c<zlestis\ which I take to be a 

 form of albino, shot on the north bank of the Tay, opposite the 

 mouth of the Earn, on the 3rd October (1892). This bird, which 

 seemed not quite to have completed its autumnal moult, was 

 apparently a young female, most beautifully shaded and pencilled 

 with rich buff and creamy yellow, the breast whitish, bill and legs 

 when fresh yellowish cream with a pinky tinge, eyes dark brown. 

 Though I believe Buff-coloured Snipe have now and again been got 

 in Ireland, this is the first occurrence of this variety that has come 

 under my notice, or that I have heard of in this country. This bird 



