ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 59 



Marsh Titmouse in Perthshire. On the 2yth September, in a 

 wood near Doune, I came across four if not five specimens of the 

 Marsh Tit (Pants palustris). This is the first time I have seen this 

 bird in this district. Mr. J. Hamilton-Buchanan, in his list of birds 

 observed in the parish of Callander, Perthshire (" Trans. Roy. 

 Physical Society, 1879), mentions having shot one on Loch Lubnaig 

 side in May 1877. H. M. DUTHIE, Doune. 



Great Gray Shrike in Lanarkshire. Mr. M'Culloch, taxider- 

 mist, Glasgow, received on 2oth November last a Great Gray Shrike 

 (Lanius excubitor) stated to have been shot some days previously at 

 Blantyre. JOHN PATERSON, Glasgow. 



Common Buzzard in South Ayrshire. Mr. Charles Berry, 

 Lendalfoot, informs me he received on i7th September a female 

 Common Buzzard (Buteo vulgaris} in the flesh, which had been 

 trapped near Straiton. JOHN PATERSON, Glasgow. 



Red-breasted Mergansers on Speyside. I see in the October 

 number of the " Annals " that a nest of the Merganser (Mergus 

 serrator) was found near Cromdale this year, probably for the first 

 time. In the middle of July last I saw a Merganser duck on the 

 Ballindalloch section of the Spey, with a large brood of young ones ; 

 and Mr. Pelham Burn, of Pitcroy Lodge, also saw on his water about 

 the same time an old female bird with one young one. There were 

 several pairs of Mergansers about here the whole breeding season. 

 WALTER M. STOPFORD, Ballindalloch. 



Red-legged Partridge in Forfarshire. On igth September of 

 this year there was brought to me a specimen of the Red-legged 

 Partridge (Caccabis ritfa) ; this was the first indication to me of the 

 existence of the species in Forfarshire. It was taken in a net two 

 nights previously, by one whose modesty prevents me from mention- 

 ing by his name. On 26th September a second specimen reached 

 me, which had been shot on the uplands of Carmyllie by Mr. 

 Falconer, W.S., Edinburgh. On making inquiry, I was informed 

 by the Rev. Mr. Adams, Inverkeillor, that during the nesting season 

 several eggs of the Red-legged Partridge had been found in Pheasants' 

 nests on Lord Northesk's estate of Ethie. From the Hon. Douglas 

 Carnegie I subsequently learned that in at least two Pheasants' nests 

 were eggs of Red-legged Partridge found to have been laid. Two 

 or three of these eggs were taken, and the others were presumably 

 hatched. The birds killed were respectively two and five miles 

 distant from the site of the nests. A short notice of the occurrence 

 in the local paper elicited from Mr. Jalland, Ochterlony (an estate 

 some seven miles inland from Ethie) the following information : " I 

 turned out several Red-legged Partridges in the summer of 1894, and 

 they remained here, in ' packs,' until the deep snow in February last, 

 when they all suddenly disappeared. I have no doubt the birds 



