278 The Scottish Nat^iralist. 



loving sportsmen has terribly diminished our hawks and owls, 

 and indeed the larger species of both now only gain admission 

 to our lists as occasional stragglers. In the same manner the 

 disgraceful slaughter of sea-birds proceeds in the summer months, 

 all the more hotly that its period is somewhat limited by an 

 ineffective Act. The number of Solan-Geese, for instance, that 

 are thus destroyed is almost incredible, — two or three hundred 

 birds in a day being often killed at the Bass by a single excursion- 

 party. 



I have not restricted myself, in the following catalogue, to any 

 very sharply-defined limits ; but I have frequently inserted notices 

 of specially interesting birds from localities slightly without our 

 proper district. In compiling the list, I have availed myself of 

 Mr Gray's classic ' Birds of the West of Scotland,' which con- 

 tains much interesting information anent those of the East Coast 

 also ; Dr Turnbull's useful little book on the ' Birds of East 

 Lothian ; ' the careful record which Messrs Embleton, Tate, and 

 Kelly, and other members of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, 

 have kept of rare captures in that county ; and the similar notes 

 which Dr J. Smith and others have long communicated to the 

 Royal Physical Society. The other sources from which I have 

 occasionally drawn information will be mentioned with the entries 

 to which they refer ; but I take this opportunity of recording my 

 thanks to Mr Scot Skirving, Mr Ivison Macadam, and last, but 

 not least, to Mr Small, the well-known Edinburgh bird-stuffer, 

 for much valuable information. 



RAPTORES. 



FALCONID^. 



1. Aquila Chrysaetos. Pall. The Golden Eagle. 



A rare visitant; chiefly young birds in autumn and winter. 

 North Berwick, 1865 ;i Coldingham, March 1866;^ In- 

 nerleithen, Feb. 1876; Roxburgh, 1876, and Jan. 1877 

 (Berw. Nat. Proc, vol. viii. p. 196); Dunse, Jan. 1877.- 

 Examples have also been seen at East Linton, Hutton 

 Mill, Lauder, &c. 



2. HALiAiiTos ALBiciLLA. LcttcJi. The Emc, or White-tailed 



Eagle. 

 A rare straggler, but probably more frequent than the 



» Turnbull's ' Birds of East Lothian.' = Proc. of Berw. Nat. Club. 



