ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 249 



On the supposed occurrence of the Harvest Mouse in Moray. 

 In Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley's " Vertebrate Fauna of the 

 Moray Basin" (vol. i. p. 202), the Harvest Mouse (Ahis minutus) is 

 stated to occur in Banffshire. It is also stated that there is a 

 specimen in the Banff Museum. I lately had the opportunity of 

 examining all the Rodents there, and I can find no trace of a genuine 

 Harvest Mouse. The only animal that might have been mistaken 

 for it was a stuffed skin of a reddish-coloured Field Mouse (Mus 

 sylvaticus), which might have been skinned from a spirit specimen. 

 I do not yet believe that Mus minutus has ever been found north of 

 the Grampians. Mr. Edward probably mistook young, bright- 

 coloured Field Mice for Harvest Mice, as his knowledge of British 



O 



Rodents was not complete. He said he " thought he had seen the 

 Dormouse" in the North of Scotland. I think "the Dormouse has 

 never been found in Scotland at all. At any rate, if it had been 

 once seen by a naturalist like Edward he would never have forgotten 

 it. WM. TAYLOR, Lhanbryde. 



Sperm Whale in South Uist. In the month of May last the 

 carcass of a Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) in a comparatively 

 fresh state was washed ashore on the west side of the island of South 

 Uist. It was bought by Mr. Macaskill, Polcharra, who told me that 

 it measured about 70 feet in length, and that he had got a large 

 quantity of oil from it. I understand the skeleton is to be secured 

 for the Glasgow Museum. JOHN MACRURY, Barra. 



The Pied Flycatcher in Dumfriesshire. During this summer 

 several Pied Flycatchers (Muscicapa atricapilla) have been under 

 observation at a locality in Dunscore Parish. It was strongly sus- 

 pected they were nesting, but the fact was not proven. The oc- 

 currence marks the latest extension of the species in Solway. It 

 may be of interest to record the history of the Pied Flycatcher as a 

 Dumfriesshire bird, so far as known to me. The late Mr. Hastings, 

 bird-stuffer in Dumfries, saw a $ in Drumlanrig Park in the summer 

 of 1865. My friend Mr. Tom Brown, Auchenhessnane, discovered 

 a pair nesting at a spot on the Scaur Water in 1884. They reared 

 a brood, and returned again to the same place in 1885. In August 

 1889 I met with a P a i r an d their newly fledged young brood flitting 

 about the gardens at Kirkwood House, near Lockerbie. About the 

 same time, and for several years subsequently, Pied Flycatchers were 

 seen in the vicinity of Thornhill by Mr. Robert Armstrong. On 

 3oth May 1892 that gentleman took me to a pretty little glade on 

 the Cample, where, in a hole in an alder-tree trunk, I had the pleasure 

 of examining a nest containing seven eggs. There are what may be 

 considered as two colonies : one in Annandale, the other in Upper 

 Nithsdale. Small colonies they certainly are, but they bid fair to 

 multiply and extend their bounds each recurring season. ROBERT 

 SERVICE, Maxwelltown, Dumfries. 

 24 E 



