246 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



The Quail (Coturnix com munis) in the Edinburgh District. With 

 reference to Mr. Adair's note in the July number of the " Annals " 

 reporting the presence of the Quail on the farm of Remote, some five 

 miles east of Dalkeith, it may be worth while putting on record the 

 following further occurrences this year in the district around Edin- 

 burgh, as indicating a visitation in more than usual numbers : a cir- 

 cumstance which it is natural to associate with the unusually fine 

 spring and early summer. 



On 22nd July (shortly after sunset), and almost daily during the 

 following week, I heard the well-known call in a field of barley ad- 

 joining the village of Roslin. The field was immediately opposite 

 the house in which I was staying ; and it was very pleasant to sit 

 during the evening near the partly open window listening to the 

 liquid notes : now so distinct as to suggest the bird being but a few 

 yards off, now almost inaudible, as if quite at the other side of the 

 field. Mr. Eagle Clarke tells me that during the same week he 

 and Mr. Adair heard one calling in a field of oats on the farm 

 of Morton Mains, a few miles south of Edinburgh ; and that on 

 several occasions during the last few days of July he heard others on 

 different parts of Comiston farm, only a few hundred yards beyond 

 the city boundary at Morningside. To the neighbouring farm of 

 Oxgangs, they used to come annually about twenty years ago ; but I 

 am not aware that they have been noticed there since. Again, just 

 before daybreak on the mornings of the i2th and i4th of August, I 

 heard one calling in the heart of the town of Leven in Fife : it must 

 have come into one of the larger gardens to feed. Mention should 

 also be made of a nest containing eggs within a few days of hatch- 

 ing, which was discovered in June last in a hayfield adjoining the 

 village of Tranent in East Lothian, as stated in the newspapers at 

 the time. 



It must not be supposed that I record these occurrences because 

 the Quail is a very rare bird in the Forth district (it occurs annually 

 in some localities with great regularity), but merely because they 

 seem to point to its presence this summer in more than usual 

 numbers. WM. EVANS, Edinburgh. 



Quails (Coturnix communis) in Barra. About the middle of 

 June, I heard the notes of the Quail in a field of corn on the 

 minister's glebe in this island. Since that time, and up to the 

 beginning of September, I heard the notes frequently about the same 

 locality ; and one day I marked out at least four or five different 

 birds, but although I walked over the fields I failed to see or put 

 any of them up. The Rev. J. W. M'Donald, who accompanied 

 me on several occasions, was, however, more fortunate, as he saw 



