300 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Very handsome birds are bred on some of the Ayrshire moors. 

 The disease to which this fine bird, for the last twenty years, has 

 been more or less subject, appears to be intimately associated with 

 the destruction of birds of prey frequenting its haunts. (See 

 "Proceedings," page 226). 



The Common Partridge (Perdix cinerea). 



Also very common, and well distributed, extending in Wigtown- 

 shire to the verge of the cliffs at the Mull of Galloway Lighthouse, 

 where we saw a covey last year in a small patch of oats in the 

 enclosed piece of cultivated ground belonging to the Commissioners. 



In ordinary seasons this bird is useful to farmers as a destroyer 

 of aphides and other larger insects, which adhere to and injure the 

 leaves of the turnip. Mr Anderson has seen a covey leisurely tra- 

 versing the turnip drills, and picking the insects from the under 

 side of the leaves; and we are gratified to learn from Mr J. A. 

 Harvie Brown — an excellent observer, resident in Stirlingsliire — 

 that he has made simdar observations on this halnt of the part- 

 ridge, during the present summer. " The Green Fly," writes Mr 

 Brown, " is abundant on turnip leaves in some places this year, 

 and the partridges seem to feed largely on it. I observed a covey, 

 the other day, feeding along the edge of a turnip field, underneath 

 the leaves ; and Mr Drummond observed the same thing this year. 

 I don't remember having actually seen them doing this before." 

 A beautiful albino of this species was shot in Wigtownshire some 

 years ago, by H. Stewart, Esq., of Tonderghie. 



The Cobimon Quail {Coturnix imlgaris). 

 Well known both in Ayrshire and "Wigtownshire. It is not 

 uncommon near Girvan, frequenting grass fields, Avhere, on sum- 

 mer nights, it is often detected by its soft and liquid note. 

 Among rural people it is known by the name of weet-my-feet, these 

 words being well expressed in the sounds emitted by the bird. 

 Mr Gray has in his collection a specimen in summer plumage, 

 shot near Kilmarnock, in May, 1868, by Mr Eaton, who states 

 that it must breed somewhere in that neighbourhood. The nest 

 has been frequently found in other parts of Ayrshire. Mr Gray 

 has in his collection two very prettily marked eggs, taken along 

 with other nine in a nest near Ardrossan, by Mr John Jamieson. 



