i68 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Crossbills in Dee. Perhaps it may be worth recording that 

 on 13th July 1920 I saw a family group of Crossbills {Loxia 

 curvirostra) feeding among the pines near Crathes Station, Deeside 

 Railway, and to-day noted a pair high up on Scots pines a quarter 

 of a mile from the former site. It is believed that these birds nest 

 in the woods around Crathes Castle as they are seen with young almost 

 every summer in the neighbourhood. Alex. Macdonald, Darris. 



Common Crane in Kirkcudbright, When walking on the 

 Cairnsmore Moor (Stewartry of Kirkcudbright) on the 15th June, 

 I saw a Common Crane alight a short distance away. I watched it 

 for a considerable time, feeding in the bog, mobbed by Lapwings, 

 and believe that it was an immature bird, as the feathers on the 

 neck and wing coverts still seemed somewhat brown. The bird 

 was quite full-winged and flew at a great height, and remained about 

 the moor for several days. 



Enquiries having failed to elicit any information as to its being 

 an escaped bird and the wind having been S.E. for several days 

 and therefore favourable for rare visitors, I think it may be regarded 

 as a genuine migrant. 



As the collection of Cranes at Logan, Wigtownshire, is not far 

 from Cairnsmore, it niay be well to record that the Common 

 Crane has never been kept there. Neither was it an escape from 

 the Woburn collection, where young birds are left full-winged. 

 M. Bedford. 



Abundance of Painted Lady Butterflies at Fowlsheugh. 



When sitting on the grass at the top of the cliffs at Fowlsheugh on 

 2ist June 1920, watching the wonderful multitudes of cliff breeding 

 birds thronging the ledges and the sea below us, we were struck by 

 the unusual number of Painted Lady Butterflies ( Vanessa cardui) 

 which were flitting about. We must have seen quite twenty all in a 

 very worn and tattered condition. One of us had on a tweed skirt 

 buffy brown in colour with orange and blue flecks and one of the 

 Painted Ladies repeatedly lit upon the skirt and remained there 

 for quite a long time. When sitting on this unusual resting place 

 it was very inconspicuous, the colours of the butterfly blending 

 into those of the tweed. Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul and Evelyn 

 v. Baxter. 



