ii4 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Jays in Scotland. In the January number of the '' Annals " 

 the reappearance of Jays (Garntlns glandarius) is reported from 

 Dumfriesshire and Berwickshire. I have heard also that one at 

 least has been shot in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. Mr. 

 Service suggests that these are birds on migration. Possibly ; but I 

 venture to suggest another explanation. In 1891, being anxious to 

 restore Jays to this part of the country (Wigtownshire), I obtained 

 twelve young birds from Mr. Baker of Mount Street, and, having 

 kept them in a pheasant pen till full grown, released them in the 

 autumn of that year. They have bred regularly since then, but do 

 not appear to increase in numbers in these woods. It is possible 

 that some of the offspring of this colony have spread to neighbouring 

 counties. Game preservers may look upon this as a mischievous 

 experiment, but I submit that the beautiful Jay is not one whit more 

 injurious to game than the grimy, and far more numerous, Jackdaw. 

 As for the effect on game at Monreith, the tenant of the shooting 

 there reports having shot 11,500 Partridges in the last three seasons, 

 (1895-96, 1896-97, and 1897-98), of which the last was a bad 

 breeding season in these parts. Of Pheasants, he turned down 

 1 200 during the present season and shot 1400, which does not 

 look as if the presence of a few Jays was very hurtful. HERBERT 

 MAXWELL. 



The Garden Warbler South of the Grampians. Mr. Saunders's 

 " Manual of British Birds " is the best book on the distribution of 

 birds in Scotland, yet in the case of the Garden Warbler (Sylvia 

 hortensis) the information regarding Scotland in the new edition 

 (pt. ii.) is not quite up to his usual standard. It would appear, 

 from Mr. Saunders's account, that the fact of this species being 

 more abundant in " Solway " than the Blackcap was a distinction 

 particular to that region ; but a similar state of matters obtains, Mr. 

 Evans tells me, in " Forth," and the same may be said of " Clyde." 

 I find it general in suitable places in localities widely separated ; for 

 instance, throughout the Girvan valley in South Ayrshire, in the 

 Glasgow district, and in the orchard country in Lanarkshire. It is 

 a bird of Loch Lomond, although omitted from Mr. Lumsden's list, 

 and accounts of its nesting continue to be communicated to me 

 from different " Clyde " localities. The Blackcap is less numerous 

 and consequently less known. What I really desire to bring out is 

 the fact that the Blackcap south of the Grampians is far more local 

 than the Garden Warbler, whereas Mr. Saunders tells us regarding 

 England, that there the last-named is " far more local " than the 

 former ! JOHN PATERSON, Glasgow. 



Hawfinch in Midlothian. On the gth of March a Hawfinch 

 (Coccothraustes vulgaris) was picked up dead in the shrubbery at 

 Arniston, the seat of Robert Dundas, Esq., who has kindly pre- 



