94 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



burn already mentioned to the river, and along to the Auld 

 Brig o' Doon, the Carrick end of which is on the estate of 

 Doonside. 



It is curious how one personality pervades this region. But 

 for Burns and his writings this old bridge would have been in 

 ruins, and the neighbouring kirk a shapeless cairn. The trees 

 at Doonholm have a double interest from the probabilitv that 

 they were planted by his father, and the name of Auchendrane 

 is rendered familiar to many all over the world through a portrait 

 by Nasmyth having been in possession of the owners. 



The electric cars would not, it is almost certain, have been 

 running out here but for the multitudes drawn hither bv his 

 fame, or for the imaginary ride by honest Tam o' Shanter. 



The very car stations are named after the " lad was born in 

 Kvie." We came out from -'Burns' Statue" to "Burns' 

 Cottage.'"' and now return from '• Burns' Monument" to '• Burns' 

 Statue." 



I wonder what his contemporaries would have said could they 

 foreseen it ; including an ancestress of mine who once rebuked 

 her daughters and young Burns from the neighbouring farm of 

 Mount Oliphant for " wasting the gude vittal," when they had 

 been amusing themselves one wet day by pelting each other with 

 oatmeal. 



Harelaw Dam, 21st April, 1905. — Mr. John Robertson, 

 conductor. — There were about twenty -two present at this 

 excursion, including a party of eight from the Paisley Naturalists' 

 Society. The Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus), of which 

 species a great colony nests here, had just started nesting, about 

 thirty nests having eggs, most of the nests containing, however, 

 but one egg, there being only about half-a-dozen with the full 

 complement of three eggs. While some of the party were on the 

 island where the nests are, a Shoveller (Spatula ch/peata) passed 

 overhead. This duck is rare in Renfrewshire, and is worth 

 recording in consequence. The weather was unfortunatelv far 

 too boisterous and cold to be eniovable. 



Blacksiiaw, 28th April, 1906.- -Report by Mr. D. A. Boyd.— 

 The party, who numbered five, travelled by rail to West Kilbride, 



