52 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



apparently a bird of the year, as it wants the black chin-spot. This 

 is the first time that I have met with this species in Argyll, although 

 I have been looking for it for years, and it would be interesting to 

 hear whether any others have been noticed in this area. CHAS. H. 

 ALSTON, Letterawe, Loch Awe. 



Hoopoe in Argyllshire. I recently heard from a friend that a 

 bird which he thought to be a Hoopoe (Upitpa epops) had frequented 

 the woods at Onich since early in October. His identification has 

 been confirmed by a letter to the " Oban Times " of i ith November, 

 wherein it is stated that a Hoopoe had been shot at Onich at the 

 end of October or beginning of November. This bird is evidently 

 a rare visitor to Argyll, for it has no place in the Fauna of the area 

 published in 1892. CHARLES CAMPBELL, Cramond Brig. 



Wrynecks (lynx tonjuilla'] in " Forth."- -During the autumn 

 migration of 1905, a considerable number of Wrynecks appeared in 

 the east of " Forth." On yth September, having been informed by 

 Mr. D. Bruce of their presence about Dunbar, I visited the locality 

 and picked up a dead one on the railway bank east of the town, 

 and had given to me another which had been killed by a passing 

 train, a mile to the west of the station, on 4th September. On the 

 8th one was shot close to Dunbar, and on the 9th I got a glimpse 

 of another as it flew away from an ant-hill upon the approach of an 

 express. The birds, to the number of five or six at least, had been 

 observed from about the 25th of August. I also examined a 

 specimen that had been found in a dying state at Elie on or about 

 3oth August. One from Shetland came under my notice a few 

 days later. WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



Speed of Flight in the Heron. Sir Herbert Maxwell has the 

 following interesting note on this subject in a recent number of the 

 "Scottish Review" : "If one were asked to name a British bird of 

 slow flight and sluggish wing-beat, very likely he would name the 

 Heron. Deliberate as the movement appears to the eye, the strokes 

 amount to not less than 120 to 130 per minute. As to velocity, the 

 Heron's speed is moderate, but far greater than might be imagined. 

 One morning lately I started before sunrise in a motor to catch a 

 main-line train at a station twenty miles. distant. The air was perfectly 

 still, my road lay level close along the shore, and not a human being 

 was stirring on it. As we crossed a bridge over a little burn, a Heron 

 rose in the dusk, much agitated, and flew out to sea. After holding 

 its course for half a mile or so, the bird turned to the right, and flew 

 parallel with the road and my car. Presently a bend in the shore 

 brought the Heron immediately in front of me, at a distance of about 

 one hundred yards. We were running about up to speed limit twenty 

 miles an hour yet the Heron held easily ahead of us, and finally 

 flew out of sight behind a hill. Now I am convinced that most 



