REPORT ON SCOTTISH ORNITHOLOGY IN 1916 153 



Pheasants and Partridges, many of the young birds being 

 drowned in the floods. We have evidence of this from East 

 and North Fife and Forfarshire, and no doubt other localities 

 were also affected. But there are, in addition to these, other 

 species which are reported as scarcer than usual in 1916. 

 VVhitethroats were less numerous than usual at Possil Marsh 

 (2. viii. 61), while Wheatears were unusually scarce at 

 Corsemalzie, in the Kelvin Valley, and at Nevay Park 

 (Meigle). There were very few Cuckoos and Corncrakes 

 about Largo (Fife), and the latter species was only heard 

 once or twice at Golspie (Sutherland). From Duns we have 

 the note " 19 16 in this district was a very poor year for 

 migratory and rare birds. Migrants were late in arriving 

 and few in number compared with former years. Blackcaps 

 were exceptionally numerous in 191 5, while in 1916 I did not 

 see a single bird. Garden Warblers were thinly scattered, 

 and all the other warblers were much scarcer than usual." 

 From North Unst comes the following note : " Of the Herring 

 Gulls that nested on the cliffs this past season, after building 

 their nests very few of them laid, and fewer still hatched out 

 their young. Some thought the plague of rats on the cliffs 

 was the cause, but the Skerries, where there are no rats, was 

 just the same ; not more than a dozen young being hatched 

 where there used to be scores." Grouse and Partridges at 

 Cullen (Banffshire) had a bad breeding season and were less 

 numerous than usual. Wheatears, Golden Plover, Green- 

 shanks, Snipe, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Partridges, Black- 

 game, and Ptarmigan are all decreasing at Inverewe, West 

 Ross, while Thrushes and Wagtails were in unusually small 

 numbers at Braemar. 



One of our correspondents records about twenty pairs of 

 Red-necked Phalaropes, a large colony of Black-headed 

 Gulls, a small one of Sandwich Terns, and a large colony of 

 Cormorants near his station truly a bird-lover's paradise. 

 Three Goldfinches' nests, built within a few yards of the 

 house at Corsemalzie, all hatched off; one was in a yew 

 about 5 ft. up, another 50 ft. high at the top of a plane. 

 A Goldcrest's nest built in a privet hedge was almost barrel- 

 shaped, a small cavity being left at the top ; it had no lining 



