REPORT ON SCOTTISH ORNITHOLOGY IN I917 153 



As will be seen from the above notes, which come from 

 practically every part of Scotland, there is nothing to show 

 that the species which suffered so severely in England and 

 Ireland from the severities of the winter of 1916-17 were 

 equally affected in Scotland. Although we have local 

 scarcity of various species, there is no sign of the total 

 extermination which took place in parts of England and 

 Ireland. This may have been owing to the fact that many 

 of the species resident in England are partially migratory 

 in Scotland, how migratory it is difficult to say. 



Carrion Crows are again reported to have driven the Rooks 

 at Beith away from their rookeries and devoured their 

 eggs. Starlings are reported from Fife and Dundee in flocks 

 almost all summer ; nesting at Kirkmichael (Perthshire) is 

 said to have been very late and the nests few. Four pairs 

 of Tree-creepers were found nesting simultaneously in a 

 small tool-shed at Stenton, Dunkeld (1. 1917, 293). A 

 Willow-warbler's nest was found at Beith built of leaves ; 

 our correspondent there says he does not remember ever 

 having seen one built of that material before. A Swallow's 

 nest at the same place, built in a hayshed, and containing 

 young, was " moved ten yards and put into a tin can and 

 hung up on a joist to prevent cats devouring the young ones, 

 as the hay was being stored just below where the nest was. 

 The young ones were successfully reared by the old birds." 

 House-martins there took possession of a Swallow's nest, 

 building it up for their own use. 



Two pairs of Spotted Flycatchers nested in Orkney, an 

 interesting record from this far northern clime, and owing, 

 it is believed, to the unusually fine summer, a brood of 

 Wrens" was hatched out on the Muckle Flugga Rock at 

 North Unst these flew on 17th July; there, too, were two 

 broods of Twites and two of Rock-pipits. Stonechats are 

 recorded as nesting in the King's Park, Edinburgh (1. 1918, 

 47). A Kite was seen about Loch Ard (1. 1918, 21), while 

 Lapwings nested behind the lodge at Corrour; a Heron bred 

 in a tree on an island on Loch Ossian, and Curlew at the 

 end of the same loch. 



In general, nesting in 1917 was somewhat later than 



