So ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



IAV (Garrulus glandarius). Jays have been seen since the 

 end of October in Annandale in several small parties. Mr. Pasley 

 Dirom of Mount Annan informs me that one pair of Jays has bred 

 on an outlying portion of his property for the last eight years. The 

 young are observed flying about till the autumn, when all disappear. 

 With the exception of the colony of Jays introduced by Sir Herbert 

 Maxwell, M.P., at Monreith, I am unaware that the species has bred 

 anywhere else in Dumfriesshire or Galloway during at least the last 

 generation. 



SPOTTED CRAKE (Porzana maruetta}. This bird was again 

 observed last autumn, one having been shot at a locality in Troqueer, 

 on 24th September 1900. Three days later another was killed 

 against the telegraph wires on the Castle Douglas Railway, near 

 Buittle. 



STORM PETREL (Procel/aria pelagica). On ist October 1900, an 

 individual was observed flying about on Hightae Moss, near Loch- 

 maben, and was shot. I examined it while in the bird-stuffer's shop 

 in Dumfries. It may seem strange to state that this is the first 

 Common Storm Petrel, of local origin, that I have handled. While 

 the Fork-tailed species is in some seasons not uncommon, the other 

 would appear to be of considerable rarity in this area. Certainly all 

 those reported as " Storm Petrels " have invariably, in my experience, 

 turned out to be Fork-tailed Petrels. 



WILD GEESE. Amongst the wild-fowl of the past winter, geese 

 have again been quite a conspicuous feature. More especially has 

 this been the case in and near the estuary of the Nith, where in 

 former years, always excepting the abundant Barnacles, they were 

 never in anything but comparatively scanty numbers. Gray Lags 

 have been in large flocks. On some occasions it was estimated that 

 fully a thousand birds were flying, or sitting, together. I handled 

 many of the gray geese got by the gunners, and these were all Gray 

 Lags. It is hard to give any explanation of this curious change in 

 relative numbers of species, for in quite recent years all the geese 

 were Bean Geese, and a Gray Lag was but seldom got. Now this 

 winter, to use a sporting phrase, the Grey Lag was " first, the rest 

 nowhere." 



HONEY BUZZARD (Pernis apivoms\ On the morning of the i yth 

 January 1901, my friend Mr. Jardine, the tenant of Waterside farm, 

 within a short distance from here, was out in one of his fields looking 

 to his sheep. It was only in the gray of the morning, when his collie 

 dog " set " at something sitting by one of the sheep-troughs. Then 

 the dog made a dash at the object, which got up and flew some forty 

 yards before alighting again. Mr. Jardine followed, and keeping the 

 dog off, he was able to secure the bird without any difficulty, except 



