T 82 ANXALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



informant writes, " I was anxious about the Solan Geese on the Bass 

 Rock, but things are worse than I supposed. Can anything be 

 done?" 



Bernicle Geese in Perthshire. I have been asked to record 

 the fact that a flock of Bernicle Geese (Bernida leucopsis] were seen 

 flying up the valley of the Tummel on the 2nd of May. My atten- 

 tion was drawn to these birds by a young lad in our service, who 

 called us out of the house to see them. Having been brought up 

 on the shores of the Solway Firth, he has been familiar with 

 Bernicle Geese from infancy, and readily recognised their call at 

 a long distance. The birds flew over in a broad V formation, which 

 I estimated roughly as containing from sixty to seventy birds, followed 

 by four of their number flying in a single line. They were also 

 independently noticed about a mile farther north by my friend Mr. 

 Sandbach, who has shot many geese in Ireland. Being a keen 

 sportsman he came to ask me if we had observed them. These 

 birds appeared to be coming from the Tay estuary, and were 

 possibly making for the Moray Firth. An old resident tells me that 

 geese not unfrequently pass up or down this valley and that of the 

 Tay in spring and autumn, taking a line from Fincastle to Kinnoul 

 Hill, or the reverse, according to the season. A flock of about fifty 

 gray geese passed up this valley on 2ist April, and two birds flew in 

 the same direction on 22nd April. The only local gray goose that 

 I happen to have examined was a Pink-footed Goose. H. A. MAC- 

 PHERSON, Pitlochry. 



Little Gull on the Solway Firth. The Little Gull (Larus 

 mimdus] has occurred so often upon the Solway Firth, that I should 

 hardly have referred to the fact, were it not that this bird is rare in 

 western Britain in the spring of the year. Early in April last, an 

 adult Little Gull appeared on a ploughed field near Allonby, on the 

 English side of the Firth. It had newly commenced to don the 

 black hood and was in very perfect plumage. H. A. MACPHERSON, 

 Pitlochry, 5th June. 



Little Gull in Orkney. On landing at Stromness on the 2gth 

 of March, I was informed by Mr. Begg, a man who takes much 

 interest in bird-life, that there were a lot of Little Gulls (Larus 

 minutus) in the harbour. He told me that he first saw them that 

 afternoon, and that there were about twenty of them. The follow- 

 ing day, I saw several of them flying along the shore in twos and 

 threes, and occasionally they were hovering over the water. Most 

 of them had black heads, but two had not, and one had the black 

 on the head only partially developed. I did not see them after the 

 3oth of March. There can be no doubt as to the identity of these 

 birds, for the Blackheaded Gull (Larus ridibundns) is very common 

 and \\x-ll known to me, and was, moreover, at hand in plenty for 



