NOTES 233 



NOTES. 



An early reference to Hebridean Thrushes. In a MS. 



of Mr William Laidlaw (who was secretary and factor to Sir Walter 

 Scott), which is dated on first page of an 8vo notebook, " Mary- 

 bank, 1835," but which notebook is carried on to end of August 

 1837, and which came into my possession in March 1896, I find 

 the following note relating to Hebridean Thrushes: "I have 

 intended to write Mag. Nat. Hist, that I have been disappointed in 

 identifying the Thrush that inhabits the rocky banks of the west 

 coast and the Lews, which feeds on whelks, with the small brown 

 Thrush which I have seen passing in autumn and spring ; and [that 

 I] distinctly saw several together on the rocky knolls at . . . 

 on Loch Mareeat Christmas, 29th December 1834." It thus appears 

 that Mr R. Gray was not the first to take note of a difference 

 between the two subspecies, and it appears Mr Laidlaw "distinctly 

 saw several together " {supra) at some locality (not given) on Loch 

 Maree. I have myself observed the dark form a little to the north 

 of the Laxford River, on rocky broken ground, on two occasions in 

 two different years, when driving along the road to and from 

 Durness. J. A. Harvie-Brown, Dunipace, Larbert. 



Ring-Ouzel feeding young Cuckoo. As instances of the 

 Ring-Ouzel rearing young Cuckoos are uncommon, it may be 

 interesting to record that I observed one feeding a fully fledged 

 young Cuckoo at Kilchoan, Loch Melfort, on nth July at a height 

 of about 500 feet above the sea-level. Charles Kirk, Glasgow. 



Late breeding of the Crossbill in Speyside. On 19th 

 August I picked up dead on the playground here a young Cross- 

 bill. It is only half grown, and evidently only just out of the nest, 

 and would only be able to fly a very short distance at a time. I 

 have always understood this bird to be an early breeder. I may 

 mention that in the forenoon of 19th August my son and I were watch- 

 ing some birds on an elm tree close by. These we found to be Cross- 

 bills, and one, my son remarked, seemed to be feeding its young. 

 I at first thought this to be extremely improbable so late in the 

 season, but the finding of the young bird in the afternoon corroborates 

 his observation. Alexander Geddie, Schoolhouse, Balnacoul, 

 Fochabers. 



[The bird is now in the Royal Scottish Museum. Its bill is 

 quite straight, and shows no sign of the crossing of the mandibles. 

 22 2 G 



