162 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



morsels with Jackdaws, and even Books. Starlings completely 

 disappeared from the neighbourhood of Dumfries in the end of 

 November, 1878, and did not reappear till the beginning of 

 March. It is not uninteresting to compare the reports from 

 different localities in this way, as it indicates different conditions 

 and degrees of severity of the winter at these different localities. 

 By 15th May not one Starling in twelve had returned to their 

 breeding haunts in Dumfriesshire, and a decided diminution in 

 numbers was observable everywhere in Scotland during April and 

 the first week or ten days of May. Flocks of thirty or forty, 

 however, appeared a few days later, but did not disperse. Last 

 year young were hatched out by this time, but this year the few 

 early arrivals are only laying. Local migration of Starlings is 

 noticed by Mr. Geo. Muirhead \op. cit.~\, also of their assembling 

 in evergreens at Mordington House, Berwick, last autumn. 



CHAFFINCH. 



Fringilla coelebs, Lin. 



Unusually abundant in autumn of 1878. A large proportion 

 remained along with other hard-billed species, and did not suffer, 

 as the farm-yards proved their salvation. The same opinion is 

 held by my correspondents in the more northerly parts of Scotland, 

 and here there appears to be little diminution, if any, in their 

 numbers. Chaffinches, besides other small birds, were glad some- 

 times to seek shelter and warmth in rabbit burrows, as was related 

 to me by a rabbit-catcher and boatman at Taycreggan, Loch Awe. 

 The steep bank facing the south was the same place where Wood- 

 cocks congregated [see Woodcock, p. 174]. Mr. Geo. Muirhead, 

 however, records their disappearance, in December, 1878, from his 

 neighbourhood, but immense numbers flocked into Alnwick 

 [J. H. Gibb, he, cit.]. 



COMMON SPARROW. 



Passer domesticus (Lin. J. 



Decidedly scarcer at Dunipace. Indeed in some localities, where 

 formerly scores were seen in May, hardly one is to be found. They 

 are said also to be scarcer in Berwickshire. In the carse-lands of 

 Stirlingshire, however, no diminution in numbers was noticeable 

 at the end of summer, and by the autumn they appeared in scarcely 



