314 The Scottish Naturalist. 



while it keeps a listening attitude. If there is no danger 

 apprehended its agitation quietens down. 



Sandpiper (Totanus hypoleucos). — The male when singing 

 carries his wings elevated. On May 25th I saw them seeking 

 food in pairs, sometimes wading into the streams. If one was 

 left alone it commenced plaining like a forsaken child. On May 

 20th I came upon a nest, below a heather bush, on a bank 

 above the Coldgate Water, in Langleyford vale. It was a 

 shallow depression, without any structure, among moss and 

 fescue-grass, and about the size of the nest of a thrush. The 

 eggs are larger than those of a missel thrush, reddish white, 

 with brown blotches and dots. The startled bird shuffled along 

 the ground with its wings spread out, and every white patch on 

 the tip of its tail feathers displayed ; and it emitted a wheepling 

 ciy. Then it stood up, and glided away towards the track of 

 the stream. Next day I came on another nest with four eggs 

 among gravel beneath a thicket of hazel and thorns. The bird 

 again spread out its wings, and trailed its fan-shaped tail. There 

 was more of a nest, which was constructed of leaves, and grass, 

 and twigs. On April 29th a pair was seen on the Blackadder, 

 above Greenlaw ; the first for the season. 



Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus). — There is such a 

 love of precision in the popular mind that little allowance is 

 made for seasons and circumstances. About the famous 

 Pallinsburn Gull, the common opinion is that its return is true 

 to a day in each year; and that it withdraws in like manner for 

 good and all at one fixed period. On this subject I have been 

 favoured with a note from Mr. Askew. " The Gulls," he says, 

 " usually come here the first week in March, but do not remain 

 at night for a fortnight or so until the weather is spring-like. 

 They remain till the young are on the wing, and depart one 

 by one — all having gone by the middle of July." I learn that 

 some of the gulls have been shot on Wooler water during the 

 winter, near Wooler Bridge. On March nth, 1876, I observed 

 four or five flying backwards and forwards over the water at 

 Earle Mill; but they never returned during the subsequent 

 snowy weather." 



Hoodie?'. Sparrow Hawk. — Dr. Stuart, of Chimside, writes 

 Feb. 2 1 st, 1876. "When driving along the Hutton Road the 

 other day I saw an animal in difficulties in an adjoining field. 

 Three hooded Crows had surrounded it, stepping up and giving 

 it a peck in turn. I thought it might be a wounded hare or 



