254 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



the coast sandhills to the cleughs and deans of the Lammermoors, I 

 obtained, about two years ago, a piece of unexpected information 

 from one of the oldest residenters (Wm. Brown by name) in Aberlady. 

 For more than half a century this man has been in the habit of 

 scouring Luffness and Gullane links in search of Peewits' and other 

 birds' eggs, and in the course of conversation with him just after I had 

 found a Stock Dove's nest in a burrow on the former ground, he told 

 me he had long known these pigeons, and had from time to time 

 found their eggs when looking for Jackdaws' nests in the rabbit- 

 holes. He could not say exactly when he first came across them, 

 but he was positive it could not be less than thirty to thirty-five 

 years ago. I do not wish to press this evidence too much, but I 

 see no reason to doubt it, and think it ought to be mentioned : 

 compare with it the following statement made in 1883 by Mr. 

 Harvie- Brown in his paper " On the Stock Dove, with Remarks 

 upon its Extension of Range in Great Britain." " Many years ago," 

 he there writes, " I have had evidence of so-called Wood Pigeons 

 breeding under furze bushes on Tents Muir in Fifeshire. As yet I 

 have failed to learn if these were really Wood Pigeons or C. cenas " 

 (" Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc.,"vii. p. 244, footnote). The recent increase 

 and spread of the species in Scotland have been abundantly shown, 

 but the evidence as to the length of time it has been in the country 

 is far from satisfactory. As bearing on this point, I would draw 

 attention to the fact that Sibbald includes " the Stock Dove," as well 

 as the Ring Dove, the Rock Dove, and the Turtle Dove, in his list 

 of Scottish birds published in 1684 ("Historia Animalium in Scotia," 

 p. 17), a most interesting fact which I have not seen previously 

 referred to. The following record by Mr. T. Armstrong, Carlisle, 

 in "The Zoologist" for 1859 (p. 6378), seems also to have escaped 

 notice : " Stock Dove (Columba cenas). A bird was shot on Duncan 

 lime-kiln, near Ecclefechan, in November [1858], which has proved 

 to be this species." So, probably, were also the two " foreigners 

 smaller than the Cushat, of a slaty blue, and without the ring," shot 

 at Wallhouse, Linlithgowshire, by Colonel Gillon, in the autumn of 

 1877 ("Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc.," v. 68). WILLIAM EVANS, Edin- 

 burgh, ... '' 



The Stock Dove in Linlithgowshire and Midlothian. On 

 1 8th April I was informed by Mr. David M'Diarmid, head game- 

 keeper, Dalmeny, that he had seen a pair of Stock Doves (Columba 

 cenas) in the park, and that they had a nest in a lime tree. This 

 nest contained two eggs on 2nd May, and on that day I saw 

 another nest, also in a lime, and only a short distance from the one 

 first found. On 4th May I saw two birds, one of which was shot, 

 in a field to the south of Balerno, Mid-Lothian. I was informed 

 by the person who shot the bird that he had seen several others at 

 Riccarton, near Currie. BRUCE CAMPBELL, Edinburgh. 



