242 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



As T. Edward said that Terns did not breed here, it was 

 interesting to be shown a Tern's nest with three eggs on 

 Boyndie Beach, ist June 1916. Some twenty Terns were 

 about at the time. I found four Terns' nests close to the 

 town, 28th June to 2nd July 19 17. Two had each a partly 

 incubated egg, one had a day-old chick, and I saw a chick 

 which had recently left the fourth nest. They were probably 

 Arctic Terns. I believe that there was a nest on Boyndie 

 sea-braes where a couple of Terns mobbed intruders, at the 

 end of June, and a dead Arctic Tern was found on the beach 

 the same week. 



The Great Black-backed Gull appears to have increased 

 much of late. Formerly one or two were seen here and 

 there on the coast, but now I often see up to a score or so 

 through autumn and winter. There were about 200 in a 

 group near the lower end of the Spey on the 20th October 

 1916, when I counted a hundred adults on a gravel island. 



I have obtained no recent record of the Black Guillemot 

 which, at least up to 1850, bred in the district. It seems 

 to have disappeared. 



I am indebted to many correspondents who have kindly 

 placed their notes on local bird-life at my disposal. I hope 

 soon to complete a detailed list of the birds of Banffshire 

 and the adjoining parishes, but notes from some areas are 

 still required. 



A New Nesting Site for Lams ridibundus. What is 

 likely to prove a colony of considerable dimensions has been 

 established by numbers of the Black-headed Gull at the Loch of 

 Park in Lower Deeside. They were noted in 191 5, and in 1916 

 some eggs were laid. Last season quite a number of pairs nested, 

 and this year there is a large and busy bird-town of at least 300 

 individuals. Recent attempts to drain the loch have resulted in a 

 great increase in the clumps of rushes and masses of reeds that are 

 the favourite nesting places of these birds, while the quaking state 

 of all the margins of the mere effectually prevents the intrusion of 

 egg-stealers. The settlement is already proving an attraction to 

 local ornithologists. Alex. Macdonald, Durris. 



Nesting of the Woodcock within the Glasgow 

 Boundaries. On 23rd July (19 18) a band of children gathering 



