ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 189 



the telegraph posts which cross the Island of Lewis in the direction 

 of Loch Roag. DUNCAN MACKENZIE, Stornoway. 



[This is the first indication we have received relating to the 

 occurrence of the Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus major) 

 in the Outer Hebrides. EDS.] 



Capereaillie in Argyll. - - Last year there was a brood of 

 Capercaillies hatched out here in an old spruce and larch wood. 

 So far as I can ascertain, there are more of these birds elsewhere in 

 Argyll, and it is hard to imagine where the old birds can have come 

 from. They must have travelled a long way over perfectly woodless 

 hills. I did not find the nest or see the old birds, but when first I 

 saw the brood, mistook them for an extraordinary early lot of Black 

 Grouse. This would be early in August. In first week in October 

 I shot three, a cock and two hens, all young birds. I fancy the 

 other male birds have left, I only now see one or two hens. It 

 will be interesting to see if these will cross with Black Grouse. I 

 may mention that my keeper tells me he saw a hen some six or 

 seven years ago, but at the time did not realise what it was. F. C. 

 LISTER KAY, Lieutenant-Colonel, Cladich, Dalmally. 



Gadwall in Moray Firth. On i2th Nov. 1903, at Novar-Ross, 

 a Gadwall (Anas strepera) drake was found dead on the shore by the 

 keeper, now in my possession, and on 22nd March 1904 at Novar. 

 None of the keepers here or the bird-stuffer at Dingwall knew the 

 Gadwall, and I see from the " Fauna of the Moray Basin " that it is a 

 rare bird in this area. The only other specimen I have seen is one shot 

 on Loch Spynie and now in the collection of Capt. Uunbar Brander of 

 Pitgavany. I have as yet (2yth March), seen no summer migrants, 

 only large flocks of Thrushes which I take to be migrating birds. 

 They appear to me both smaller and darker than the resident bird, 

 but this may only be fancy. ARCH. M'L. MARSHALL. 



Eiders in the North-West Highlands. --The Eiders are still 

 upon their march southward on the Sutherland West Coast. For 

 the first time, to the knowledge of Mr. Duncan Maclver, did Eiders 

 appear in force in Scourie Bay in the spring of 1904. He had 

 never witnessed such a gathering before. There is no doubt that 

 this is an advance from the north and north-west and north-east, and 

 not from the west or south. Also at the outer island of Loch Inver 

 Eilan Soay I saw three male and two female Eiders on the nth 

 May 1904. This is the first recorded occurrence of these birds in 

 Loch Inver. I shall be quite pleased to learn of even a solitary 

 occurrence at an earlier date. 



On Bulgie Island none existed in 1882, and a visit paid to it on 

 the 1 2th May revealed not one bird, yet on Garbh Eilean there 

 were none in 1882, and they were unknown to the fisher-folk at 

 Durness, Rispond, at any place farther west than Hoan Island at 

 the entrance of Loch Eriboll ; and in 1882 my boatman assured me 



