The Scottish Naturalist. 249 



Short-sighted Policy. — I have before me vermin-lists from the following 

 Scotch estates, which show a most extraordinary destruction of Hawks and 

 other creatures believed to be inimical to the game. Glengarry estate, from 

 1837 /c? 1840. (Knox's 'Game Birds,' 115.) Marquis of Ailsa^s Ayrshire estate, 

 from 1850 to 1854. ('Birds of Sherwood,' 16.) Breadalbane estate, 1869 

 and 1870. ('Land and Water,' July 22, 1871.) These blood-stained rolls 

 record the slaughter of 2642 individuals of the Hawk tribe, by which the 

 Grouse m.ay or may not have been benefited. That is an argument into which 

 I will not enter. There is one class of feathered beings which undoubt- 

 edly reaped benefit from the slaughter — I mean the Wood-pigeons, which, from 

 their enormous numbers and the harm they do, have become in some parts of 

 Scotland an agricultural evil of no little magnitude. — J. H. Gurney, jun., 

 Noithrepps, Norwich. 



Guillemots colliding. — Apropos of my friend Mr J. H. Gurney's note 

 on the collision in the Black Sea {artte, p. 198), I may mention that I wit- 

 nessed a somewhat similar catastrophe in Loch Sunart in June 1876. I was on 

 board the Lady Ambrosine, along with my friend Mr J. J. Dalgleish of Ardna- 

 murchan, and we were steaming out of Loch Sunart on our way to Tyree. A 

 flock of Guillemots {Uria troile) rose hurriedly to escape from the bow of the 

 steamer. Two collided in their flight, and one fell head over heels into the 

 water, as if shot, while the others pursued their course. Very much astonished 

 was Uria when he came to his senses ; and I will not easily forget his puzzled 

 appearance as he sat on the water twisting his head about, as if he had a crick in 

 the neck. — J. A. Harvie Brown, Dunipace House, Larbert, Jan. 12, 1878. 



VARIOUS NOTES. 



That "union is strength "is self-evident, and consequently a combination 

 of societies with similar objects is more likely to result in the general as well 

 as the individual welfare of the societies than if each was to work, however 

 energetically, alone. On this principle the Natural History Societies of 

 Yorkshire joined themselves some time ago into an association which seems 

 to work well, and combined to publish a monthly journal — * The Naturalist ' 

 — of which we gave a notice at the time. Following their example, the 

 Natural History Societies and Field-Clubs of the midland counties of Eng- 

 land have formed a union which bids fair to be very successful. They, too, 

 have begun a monthly magazine, of which three numbers — printed and pub- 

 lished at Birmingham — have appeared, under the editorship of Messrs E. W. 

 Badger and W. J. Harrison, F.G.S. This magazine, to which the title of 

 ' The Midland Naturalist ' has been given, contains many interesting articles, 

 and is well edited. Such signs of progress are gratifying to naturalists in 

 every part of the country, and we have much pleasure in wishing our brethren 

 of the midland counties all success. 



