252 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Scaup have been seen regularly on Balgray Dam, a considerable 

 sheet of water, at over 300 feet elevation, near Pollok Castle. Usually 

 three birds have been in company, two males and one female ; but 

 within the last two or three weeks five males and one female were 

 seen on one occasion, and on another two males and two females. 

 In a dozen visits to the locality named we have never failed to find 

 Scaup represented ; and their presence has probably lessened, in our 

 view, the interest attaching to the presence of Pochards on the same 

 dam throughout the present summer. No proof of the nesting of 

 either species has been found this year. Tufted Ducks have been 

 more numerous than the species named on Balgray Dam, and the 

 circumstance is referred to because of the confusion stated to have 

 arisen between this species and Scaup in one instance in Scotland 

 too well known to call for particular reference. Scaup are well 

 known to us, and there is in the present case no confusion between 

 them and any other duck. This note may be read in connection 

 with the recent record in the " Annals " of Scaup in the estuary of 

 the Clyde on ist August 1895. JOHN PATERSON and JOHN ROBERT- 

 SON, Glasgow. 



Ray's Wagtail nesting 1 near Edinburgh. As a breeding 

 species, the Yellow or Ray's Wagtail (Motacilla raii} is sufficiently 

 rare in the Lothians, or for that matter in most parts of Scotland, 

 to justify a record of a nest with six apparently fresh eggs which I 

 discovered in a cornfield in the vicinity of Portobello, near Edin- 

 burgh, on the 3rd of June last (1896). I had been watching the 

 birds at intervals for about three weeks, and on the day mentioned 

 saw the female go to the nest. Eight years ago (that is, in the 

 summer of 1888) a brood was reared in the very same field, and 

 several times towards the end of June I watched the old birds feed- 

 ing the young ones after they had left the nest and were able to fly 

 a few yards. Although I had previously noticed the species now 

 and then about Duddingston and elsewhere, it was not till Mr. 

 Eagle Clarke informed me he had observed it near Portobello in the 

 beginning of June in the year last mentioned that I was able to trace 

 it to its breeding-ground. WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



The Roller in Orkney. A specimen of this comparatively rare 

 bird was secured in the island of Westray, Orkney, during the second 

 week of June, under the following circumstances : A lad at the 

 farmhouse of Baccaraas, near Noup Head, observed a hawk pursuing 

 a bird and repeatedly striking it. The bird was observed to escape, 

 and descended into the barn, where the lad succeeded in catching it 

 alive and took it into the house, but it survived only a short time. 

 It was sent to Mr. Sim, naturalist, Aberdeen, for preservation, and 

 identified by him as the Roller (Corarias garrulus). Two specimens 

 of this bird were seen in the same island in 1890, and a specimen 

 was shot in Sandwick parish in 1889. J. W. CURSITER, Kirkwall. 



