GLEANINGS 95 



GLEANINGS. 



In the issue of Nature dated 6th March, appears (p. 10) a letter by 

 James Ritchie on " Four-horned Sheep in Scotland." This communica- 

 tion refers to a statement published in 1792 regarding the occurrence 

 of the four-horned breed in Nithsdale, and drawing attention to the 

 smaller body, finer wool, and greater difficulty and danger in lambing 

 as compared with later breeds. These characteristics, or similar ones, 

 are stated in the present communication to occur also in the Hebridean 

 race, and it is suggested that "the four-horned breed of sheep, the last 

 remnants of which in Scotland were isolated on the Hebridean and 

 Western Islands, had at a comparatively recent date considerable 

 outposts on the mainland.'"' 



J. A. Harvie-Brown publishes in the Zoologist (March 19 13, pp. 105- 

 107), a lengthy note on "The Hedgehog in the West of Scotland." A 

 summary of actual records up to date is given, prefaced by remarks 

 on the dispersal of the species and the advisability of continuous 

 recording. 



At a meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club held on 8th January 

 last the following Scottish varieties of Game-birds were exhibited: 

 (1) a male Black Grouse shot by Mr R. Martin at Bogra Dunscore, 

 Dumfriesshire ; (2) a female Pheasant caught at Springkell, Dumfries- 

 shire ; and (3) an adult female Red Grouse killed at Kirkconnell, 

 Kirkcudbrightshire. The first of these was in a peculiar state of 

 plumage, due to the fact that at the time it was killed it was moulting, 

 and had recovered from the loss or disturbance of pigment which had 

 apparently caused the abnormal coloration. The Pheasant was a 

 remarkable specimen, exhibiting a combination of albinism, melanism, 

 and erythrism. With regard to the Red Grouse, it was suggested that 

 the peculiar condition of its plumage was due to the bird having 

 moulted late, and that during the course of the moult the pigment had 

 changed to that producing the summer plumage. 



We note the following Scottish records in the March number of 

 British Birds: on page 312 Hugh S. Gladstone records a Willow -tit 

 from Grennan, Dumfriesshire (shot 25th January) ; a Green Sandpiper 

 was shot at Kirbister, Orkney, on 19th August 191 2, and another seen 

 on the same day ; also two male Bar-tailed Godwits shot on the island of 

 Shapinsay, on 1st October 1912 (James R. Hale, p. 315). 



The latest issued part of the Transactions and Proceedings of the 

 Perthshire Society 0/ Natural Science (vol. v., part iv., 191W2) contains 

 three papers of much interest to Scottish entomologists. The first 

 (pp. 1 14-123) is by W. Wylie, and is "A List of the Macro-Lepidopten 

 of the Kinfauns District, with a General Description of some of the 



