44 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Tweed Area, 191 1) is the case in that district. Chas. H. Alston, 

 Letterawe, Loch Awe. 



Little Bittern in Fifeshire A Little Bittern was shot by 

 W. Ghimming, gamekeeper to F. B. Sharp, Esq., Hill of Tarvit, on 

 the banks of the Eden, on 17th May 1912. I have seen the bird, 

 which is in beautiful breeding plumage, but cannot say whether 

 it is a male or a female. The specimen is now in Mr Sharp's 

 possession. -John Campbell, Cupar. 



Wild Geese in Aberlady Bay, East Lothian. I was 



interested to read that a Grey Lag-Goose had occurred in Aberlady 

 Bay, because I have never come across the species there, although I 

 have seen all the other British Geese in the Bay at some time or 

 other. I have shot the Pink-footed species, which is very common 

 of course, and also the Brent, and have also seen one Bean Goose 

 shot there. The White-fronted I have seen several times usually 

 single birds, but once a small gaggle of four and the Bernacle I 

 have seen occasionally, but never more than two together. With 

 the exception of the Bean, which was killed out of one of the large 

 skeins of Pink-foots, all the others were separate and not associated 

 with these large skeins at all, as was the immature Grey Lag 

 mentioned by your correspondent. I should like to mention an 

 enormous gander of the Pink-footed species, the leader of the main 

 skein, which my friend Mr Smalley killed there on 2nd December 

 1909, and which weighed 8f lbs. The heaviest previously shot there 

 was one of 7. 1 , lbs. by my friend Mr Hunter, my own heaviest being 

 just 7 lbs. A large number of semi-domesticated Canada Geese 

 also frequent the Bay, and also a few Egyptian, all from neighbour- 

 ing ornamental waters. H. W. Robinson, Lancaster. 



[Aberlady Bay is a well-known autumn and winter haunt of Wild 

 Geese, and all the species mentioned by Mr Robinson have been 

 recorded from the locality. We have seen Bernacle Geese there to 

 the number of eight, ten, and sixteen together, and have a reliable 

 record of a flock of twenty-four. Certainly 8f lbs. is a remarkable 

 weight for a Pink-footed Goose. In our experience 7 lbs. is about 

 the maximum for males of this species, that of females being, of 

 course, considerably less. Eds.] 



Gadwall nesting in Caithness. I had the good fortune to 

 flush a pair of Gadwall from the margin of a certain loch in 

 Caithness, in the beginning of July 19 12. From the agitation of 

 both birds and their unwillingness to leave the spot, I concluded 

 they had young in the reeds. By dint of wading up and down, 



