NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 169 



PARTRIDGE. 



Perdix cinekea, Charleton. 



Reports reached me from several localities of the deaths amongst 

 Partridges, but especially serious ones from Aberdeenshire, where 

 in some districts they died in large numbers, and some estates were 

 nearly depopulated. Mr. Geo. Sim reports to this effect in the 

 Scot. Nat. [Ap., 1879, p. 84], where he has some well-chosen 

 remarks on the " Effects of the Winter, etc." In the Oban 

 district Partridges suffered also, and " are now scarce," but not so 

 scarce but that another breeding season will fill up the blanks 

 [Glasgow Evening Citizen, 31st March, 1879]. The wet summer 

 has made matters still worse in many districts of Scotland, and it 

 is feared now — August — that it will take some time to replace the 

 stock of Partridges. In other localities they seem not to have 

 suffered at all, and it is not always easy to account for this 

 variation. 



LAPWING. 



Yanellus ceistatus, Meyer. 



Large numbers of wings and remains of Lapwings and other 

 species were seen in Tyree, the whole island being strewn with 

 them in December [J. Henderson, ex ore]. Lapwings deserted 

 many localities, but clung to isolated places here and there with 

 great tenacity. They frequented a stony field close to Rosehearty, 

 in N. Aberdeenshire, until the storm temporarily abated, when 

 they all left [Rev. A. Grigor, Pitsligo, in lit.]. They completely 

 disappeared from the neighbourhood of Dumfries in the end of 

 November, and did not reappear until the beginning of March 

 [R. Service]. "We do not remember," writes Mr. Service, "ever 

 to have seen these birds leave us in winter before " [Dumfries- 

 Courier, 25th March, 1879]. 



The Lapwings usually arrive with great punctuality in spring, 

 about the term of Candlemas, so accurately indeed — as Robertson 

 tells us in his "View of the Agriculture of Kincardineshire" — 

 •'that the storm which generally happens at that season of the 

 year goes by its name — ' The Tchuchet Storm.' : They were quite 

 a fortnight late of arriving this year; and in April I noticed at 

 their breeding places a decided diminution in their numbers, which 

 was also remarked upon by others equally well acquainted with 

 the localities. Whether this diminution is generally noticeable I 



