188 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



along with Polyporus as a food supply of the molluscan and 

 perhaps other inhabitants of the pit, and in that it survives 

 luxuriantly and unchanged in type long after the pit-props upon 

 which it lives were brought to the darkness from above ground. 



NOTES. 



Albino Weasel. On Thursday, 9th inst., there was brought to 

 me an Albino Weasel which had been trapped on Tentsmuir two 

 days previously. The pellage was of a very pure white, and the 

 gamekeeper tells me that it is only the second he has met with, and 

 that the previous one, which was also trapped here, but which I did 

 not see, had the white somewhat tinged with yellow. Unfortunately 

 when this Weasel was brought to me the skin had already become so 

 decomposed that preservation was impossible. As, however, Albino 

 Weasels are not common, the occurrence may be worthy of record. 

 There are, so far as I know, no Stoats in this district. I have 

 never seen one, dead or alive, nor have any of my keepers or 

 trappers. Weasels are fairly numerous ; we trap about sixty 

 every year. William Berry, Tayfield, Newport, Fife. 



Birds Singing while on Migration. Having read, with 

 interest, Mr Tulloch's note on the Blackcap singing on migration, 

 we think it may be worth recording our experiences with regard to 

 birds singing on the Isle of May on spring passage. We have 

 frequently heard quite a large number of Warblers in song at the 

 same time, answering each other from the walls round the fields and 

 from the fences and bushes in the gardens. The species which 

 chiefly delighted us with their charming songs were Willow-warblers, 

 Sedge-warblers, Whitethroats, and Skylarks, but as well as these, we 

 have heard the Whinchat, each spring, carolling his little melody 

 from thistle top and hemlock spray. This spring we woke early one 

 morning and found a fine male Reed-bunting sitting on the support 

 of the flagstaff, and singing vigorously just outside our window. 

 Wheatears, too, sing their delightful little trilling song, and as well 

 as that of our common breeding bird (which does not, however, 

 nest on the May), we have heard the song of the Greater Wheatear. 

 Cuckoos, too, utter their dissyllabic note on their short visit to this 



