22 



THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Sparrow Hawk is, so far as we know, the first authentic record of 

 the bird's occurrence in the Outer Hebrides. Eds.] 



Variety of the Gannet. I am obliged for your courteous 

 review of The Gannet, a Bird with a History, but may I be allowed 

 to correct one mistake pointed out by Mr W. Evans, before it goes 

 farther. By some slip I have described the curious white-breasted 

 Gannet in the Royal Scottish Museum, shot at the Bass in 

 September 1894, as being six months old, instead of three months, 

 on page 488. J. H. Gurney, Norfolk. 



Ringed Grouse. I wonder if any of your readers can help 

 me to the identity of a Grouse that was shot at Loganhouse last 

 year. It was marked RP/ 4-/09/32 18. Enquiries have been made, 

 but with no result. I have an idea the bird may have come some 

 distance. I must apologise for troubling you, but shall be glad of 

 any information you can obtain. Rob. Craig Cowan, Penicuik. 



Quails in Fife. On the 22nd October, Mr Lindsay Norman 

 shot an old female Quail on the farm of Waughmill, near 

 Dunfermline. I may also record that I saw a bird of the same 

 species on Raith estate on 26th September, but as it was too far 

 away I did not attempt to shoot it. D. J. Balfour Kirke, 

 Burntisland. 



Common Snipe at Duddingston Loch. Common Snipe 

 have been out of all proportion more abundant at Duddingston 

 Loch this autumn than for the last eleven seasons. The first few 

 arrived about the 24th August. On the 30th, after fog and rain, 

 there was an abnormal rush of them ; they were running about the 

 edge of the loch or flying over it as if they were little companies of 

 the social dunlin, and in the twilight of the 31st their notes were 

 sounding in all directions as they came swooping down on the loch. 

 The numbers gradually decreased during the next ten days. 

 William Serle, Duddingston. 



Sword-fish in Dumfriesshire. An example of the Sword-fish 

 {Xiphias gladius) was stranded at Annan, Sandrig, on 3rd September 

 1 913. It measured 7 A feet in length and weighed about a hundred- 

 weight. Hugh S. Gladstone, Thornhill. 



Sympetrum fonscolombii (Selys) in Arran. In the 



Scottish Naturalist for January 19 12, Mr William Evans recorded 

 the occurrence of Sytnpctrum fonscolombii at several points in the 



