NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 85 



BARN OWL. 



ALUCO FLAM ME US (Linnaeus). 



Mr A. G. More says, "nests only occasionally in Eoss and 

 Caithness/' and the same remark perhaps may apply to Suther- 

 land also. In the breeding season I have never observed this 

 species in the birch woods of the west, but we know from reliable 

 sources that it has occasionally bred on the south shore of Loch 

 Assynt. In August I have seen the species in the birch woods 

 near Loch Inver, and around the shores of Loch Letteressee, — a 

 continuation or branch of Loch Assynt. That it breeds about 

 Eosehall and in the east seems certain, but so rarely, or in such 

 small numbers, that it would be ditticult to say whether or not it 

 does so regularly. It is known only to some of the natives, not 

 to all. Mr J. Crawford marks it as breeding " occasionally " at 

 Tongue. 



Order ii., PASSE RES. 

 FISSIEOSTEES (Nocturnae). Fam. l, CAPRIMULQIDAE. 



EUEOPEAN GOATSUCKEE. 



CAPRIMULGUS EUROPAEUS, Linnaeus. 



I have been informed by a gamekeeper, who knows this bird 

 well under the name of " Night-Hawk," that twenty years ago 

 thej'- were not uncommon at Dunrobin. Since that time they 

 have increased in numbers, and have spread westward of late 

 years, as far as the thickly-wooded slopes of Eosehall. Here, 

 however, they seem to meet an effectual check to their further 

 progress in the bleak, bare, undulating moors, which stretch 

 between Eosehall and the mountainous district of Assynt. 

 Hitherto this species has been totally unknown in the west, as 

 far as I can discover. Northward from Dunrobin it may be 

 found in wooded parts along the east coast, and it has also been 

 observed at Tongue, but only very rarely. 



FISSIROSTRES {Diurnae). Fam. ii., HIRUNDINIDAE. 



COMMON SWIFT. 



CYPSELUS APUS, Linnaeus. 

 I never observed these birds in the west, nor do I believe that 



