NOTES 189 



interest to deserve record. The locality of the roosting-place is in 

 the vicinity of the Bathgate Hills, in a small plantation consisting 

 largely of thinly planted Scots pines, but with a considerable pro- 

 portion of deciduous trees elms and sycamores which, judging 

 from the position of the droppings and pellets, are preferred to the 

 pines by the birds. The roost was first located on 31st October 

 191 2, on which date I counted 76 birds coming into the 

 wood; but on subsequent occasions this number was largely 

 exceeded. On 18th November I estimated the total at 400; on 

 1 6th January of the present year, at 300; and on 18th March, at 

 500. On the latter date the wood was in process of being thinned, 

 and partly felled, and the later disappearance of the birds was, no 

 doubt, at least partly due to consequent disturbance. 



In the local circumstances, the numbers of the birds struck me 

 as remarkable. Within a three-mile radius of the roost there exist 

 ten to twelve pairs of nesting birds ; and in the 120 square miles 

 which comprise the small county of West Lothian, there are prob- 

 ably not more than sixty pairs at the most. If it is reckoned that 

 two-thirds of these rear an average brood of four young which is 

 probably an outside estimate we have an available total of 280, 

 old and young, at the conclusion of the nesting season ; i.e., little 

 more than half of the number resorting to the roost in winter. 

 Unless there is in addition a very large local proportion of non- 

 breeding birds, it seems therefore practically certain that the winter 

 roost must drain an area considerably wider than West Lothian ; 

 or else that the local residents are joined by wintering birds from a 

 distance. (I might state that hitherto I have failed to detect any 

 Hooded Crows in the assemblage.) 



In their behaviour these Crows show considerable similarity to 

 that of Rooks. Throughout the afternoons there is a tendency for 

 birds to collect into small parties at considerable distances from the 

 roosting-place ; but at the latter there is frequently not a single bird 

 visible prior to sunset. They then commence to drop in, some 

 singly, many in pairs, and others in flocks of varying dimensions, 

 those travelling at some altitude often " diving '' as they arrive, using, 

 as they do so, the "k-r-r-r" note of the Rook in similar circum- 

 stances. All collect at a short distance from the wood, usually in 

 a pasture-field about a quarter of a mile away, where they gather 

 into a dense pack. On the ground they are markedly silent, 

 though restless and active. The final move into the roost takes 

 place in a massed form, at a period of about thirty to fifty minutes 

 after sunset, and on settling on the trees the birds grow noisy, 

 emitting principally the ordinary "craa-craa," less frequently the 



