308 The Scottish Naturalist. 



The portion of the volume before us shows that there is no 

 lack of vitality in the Club. The contents are mostly (as they 

 should be) of a local character, but are not on that account 

 devoid of interest or utility to naturalists elsewhere. Rather 

 their restriction to locality enhances their value. 



Amongst the contents we notice the anniversary address of 

 the President, being a brief sketch of the work of the Club 

 during the summer of 1875; obituary notices of several 

 members and others, including a long and interesting account 

 of the celebrated naturalist, Sir William Jardine; various 

 valuable papers on local history and antiquities; reports of the 

 experimental committee (to the Tweed Commissioners) on 

 Salmonidce; various zoological and botanical papers; and a 

 variety of other matter, altogether making up this part of the 

 volume to nearly 200 pages. 



To show the* pleasant manner in which some of the subjects 

 are treated, we extract a few zoological miscellanea, by Mr. 

 James Hardy, one of the energetic secretaries, to whom the 

 Club owes so much : — 



Fox's Antipathy to Jackdaws. — A Fox which frequented 

 Siccar Point, in the beginning of May, took umbrage at the 

 Jackdaws which nestle in the old rabbit holes, on the almost 

 perpendicular, sea-banks. It had killed two and buried them at 

 separate spots ; other two it had surprised on the adjacent field, 

 and left exposed ; while a fifth, after its head had been eaten off, 

 was hid in a bunch of nettles. They had probably been render- 

 ing it too conspicuous by pursuing it like a thief, with cries and 

 chatterings, when going forth to prey, or returning to its den, 

 as I have often seen them do when a fox appeared among them. 



Sheep. — A shepherd informs me that Sheep are very fond of 

 eating moor-fowl's dung, if they can come at it. This is surely 

 a perversion of taste. 



Bottlenose. — Sometime in October,the newspapers recorded 

 that a " whale," fourteen feet long, had come ashore at Burn- 

 mouth, near Berwick. I have ascertained that it was a Round- 

 headed Porpoise, or Bottlenose (Dclphinus me/as). Droves of 

 this animal pursue the herring shoals ; and this individual had 

 got stranded. 



K estrel (Fako iinnunculus). — About two pairs breed in the 

 Pilburn 'Power plantations. Like the Sparrow-hawk, they 

 build in the old nest, which they clean out in spring. The 



