82 The Scottish NatKralist, 



buds, mostly gcum, with a little grass and a few veronica leaves intermixed. 

 So far as I can learn from shepherds and others, they had seen no dead 

 birds on the moors as yet. But it is probable that some of the weaker birds, 

 as the spring advances, will pine and die. No Lapwings were seen through- 

 out the winter ; but some of them are now (March loth) returned from the 

 sea-coast. Common Snipe and Woodcock, in the end of last and beginning 

 of this year, were both plentiful and fat — Jack Snipes rare. Dunlins, Ringed 

 Plovers, &c,, from the coast, were very fat ; and a Curlew, in the end of 

 February, also from the coast, was exceedingly fat, having a thick layer both 

 externally and internally. None of our bii'ds appear to thrive better than the 

 Heron during frost. I had several, both adult and immature ; all were fat. 

 Trout and parr were their chief feeding : one had, in addition, the remains of 

 a large frog in its stomach ; in that of another there was nothing except a 

 number of parasitical nematoid worms, about three inches in length. I sup- 

 pose it had been shot before getting breakfast. Coots apparently do not fare 

 so well as the Water-hen, some of the latter being very fat. In the early 

 part of Febiaiary I had two Brent-Geese— both fat j their stomachs were full 

 of grass- wrack [Zostera marina, var. angnsiifolia). They had probably been 

 feeding on the *' slakes " between Fenham and Holy Island, where this plant 

 occurs in great abundance. All the Anatidcc, especially the diving sorts — 

 Golden-eye, Tufted Duck, &c. — have had abundance of food — larva of aqua- 

 tic insects and shells, c\\\t?iy Fhysa fon/i7ialis ; no appearance of fish of any 

 sort. A Mallard from near Gordon had in its stomach, besides the roots 

 and leaves of aquatic plants, and a large number of the shells of Pisidiuvi 

 pusillum, a quantity of Scdii?n acre—2^. plant which I had not before found in 

 any bird. Its fresh green colour would look tempting on the tops of the 

 "dry stane dykes," and other bare spots, from which the snow had drifted. 

 Owing to the severity of the frost, the lochs and ponds were all frozen over ; 

 consequently the Ducks have not been so numerous in this district as usual 

 this winter. Most of them have been obtained on the open parts of the Tweed 

 and its tributaries. Goosanders, on the contrary, have been more numerous 

 (they are common every winter and spring), and excessively fat. Nearly 

 every one that I have dissected has been gorged with trout and parr, in various 

 stages of digestion, and from three or four inches- in length up to nine and a 

 half. One of them had been feeding on eels. They must devour large quan- 

 tities of fish, as the digestive process goes on very rapidly. Often the head 

 of the fish is decomposed, while the tail is quite fresh. They are invariably 

 swallowed head first. The Little Grebes were in good condition ; one, in 

 addition to the remains of aquatic insects and their larva, had a quantity of 

 salmon-roe in its stomach.^ 



Some of the Grebes have the cuinous habit of eating feathers. One, a 

 male of the Great Crested Grebe — shot on the Bowmont near Paston (a very 

 short distance "over the border"), Nov, l8, 1878 — had a large quantity of 

 feathers in the stomach, intermixed with the elytra of a few beetles. The 

 feathers, which appeared to be mainly from the breast of the bird, were dyed 

 green, as if it had been eating some vegetaljle matter. An Eared Grebe, 

 which was shot in a pond near Kelso, Aug. 13, 1877, had also, when opened, 



^ I should have mentioned that the feet of many water-birds were frost- 

 bitten — especially Ducks and Grebes — having lost part of the web and the 

 toes. One, a Tufted Duck, was found frozen to the ice,— A. P>. 



