158 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



in unusually large numbers in Wigtownshire, some 8000 

 being " killed in a few farmers' shoots." Gannets were seen 

 at the Monachs and the Isle of May in January, several 

 Ivory Gulls were recorded in February, and a good many 

 Little Auks were driven on to our shores in the latter half of 

 January. Goosander, Merganser, Guillemots, and Razor- 

 bills were absent from the Tay Estuary all the winter 

 of 191 5-16, while hardly any Duck were present on Lindores 

 or Morton Lochs (Fife) up to 17th January 1916. With 

 the exception of the above there is nothing worthy of 

 record in the period under review. The winter of 1916-17 

 shows goodly numbers of our ordinary winter visitors, more 

 Hoodies than usual were seen about Largo (Fife), while 

 unprecedentedly large flocks of Mallard were in the sea 

 off Kingsbarns (Fife) all winter, and Goosander were more 

 numerous on Tweed than usual, there being an unusually 

 large percentage of adult males. Redpolls were very plentiful 

 this winter at Corsemalzie (Wigtown), and from Lauder we 

 have a note of a Pied Wagtail wintering at, or near, the 

 manse. Our correspondent there writes : " This is the first 

 time in ten years' observation that I have seen one spend the 

 winter with us ; we stand 600 feet high." Blackbirds and 

 Redbreasts again wintered at Lerwick : it seems safe to 

 assume that the latter, at any rate, were continental 

 immigrants. During the latter half of November and all 

 December numerous records come of Little Auks wrecked 

 on our shores, some being driven quite far inland. 



Ringing. 



There are not many returns of ringed birds to come 

 under this heading this year. A Missel-thrush, ringed 

 in Dumfriesshire on 19th May 191 3, was recovered in Co. 

 Tipperary in January 1916(3. x. 61); this westerly movement 

 is always shown in birds ringed in Scotland and recovered in 

 Ireland, and another case of it is a Curlew, marked at 

 Kinnelhead, Beattock, in June 1916, and recovered in Co. 

 Donegal in September of the same year (3. x. 223). A 

 Cormorant marked on the Fame Islands on 2nd August 



