82 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



south of the borough, it seems hardly proper to exclude it altogether. 

 Hancock (" Birds of Northumberland and Durham," p. 42) records 

 one, which was shot near Bamburgh, on 2gth April 1859 ; and I was 

 informed by Mr. Frederic Raine, of Durham, that about the middle 

 of September 1876 he shot a specimen, on the links at Holy Island, 

 but unfortunately lost it amongst the bents. Mr. Raine wrote of it 

 as follows : " I was on the links near the limekilns with W. Lilburn 

 (pilot) when I saw it sitting on a clump of ragwort. After having a 

 good look at it I called Lilburn to see it. He did not know it, and 

 said it was a ' foreign bird.' He was carrying my gun, so I told 

 him to shoot it. He fired, and the bird flew a short distance and 

 dropped amongst the bents. Taking the gun, I went to where it 

 fell ; up it got, I fired, and it dropped amongst the bents again, and 

 we could find nothing more of it." 



WAXWING, Ampelis garrulus, Linnaeus. A rare and uncertain 

 winter visitant, appearing in some seasons, in .considerable numbers. 

 There are plenty of records from the surrounding districts, but I do 

 not find any for the borough itself, though Mordington, where an 

 adult female was found dead, on the nth December 1891, is just 

 outside our parliamentary boundary. Several appeared upon the 

 Borders in 1892 and 1893. 



SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, Muscicapa grisola, Linnaeus. A common 

 summer visitor, breeding in several places in the borough. I have 

 sometimes noticed it, in autumn, visiting the gardens, in company 

 with the little bands of Redstarts, Warblers, etc.; and on Holy Island, 

 on 1 2th May 1884, I found a good many Spotted Flycatchers, 

 mixed up with large numbers of Willow Wrens, Sedge Warblers, and 

 Whitethroats. Most of these birds were evidently only resting upon 

 the island, for not many or any of them nest there, and they were 

 crowding together about the scant hedges and bushes, which grow 

 upon the island. The actions of the warblers, in skulking about the 

 hedges, seemed natural enough, but I was much struck with the way in 

 which the Flycatchers sought shelter in the middle of the bushes, when 

 disturbed, as though impatient of observation ; and their movements 

 amongst the branches contrasted so strongly with their usual habit 

 of perching on the outside or topmost twigs only, that it was some 

 time before I could satisfy myself that the birds I was watching 

 were really Flycatchers, and not some sort of Whitethroat, or other 

 large Warbler. 



PIED FLYCATCHER, Muscicapa atricapiUa, Linnaeus. Occurs 

 irregularly, on migration, in autumn, and is rather less frequently 

 observed in spring. Breeds intermittently in Northumberland, 

 where I have found its nest in more than one locality, and has been 

 reported also to have done so in Berwickshire. 



A few years ago, I was accustomed to meet with it, in Ravens- 



