NOTES 195 



Starlings as Blimics. As is well known, Starlings are excellent 

 mimics of the notes and songs of other birds, even of partridges, as 

 I have heard them. But I wonder if it has been noted how they 

 have taken to imitating the Swallow tribe in hawking for flies, etc. ? 

 So well have they copied the manner of flight of the Swallow, not 

 only in skimming but in the peculiar flutter, that at a distance it is 

 not easy to say which is Swallow and which is Starling. Douglas 

 G. Hunter, Arbroath. 



Grey Lag Geese in South-Eastern Forfarshire. In the 



autumn of 1896 three Grey Lag Geese alighted on a farm in the 

 parish of Arbirlot, about a mile from the sea, and remained in the 

 district until March following, when they migrated. During the 

 day they passed from field to field feeding upon grass, autumn sown 

 wheat, spilt grain, and frosted potatoes, and they retired for the 

 night to a solitary moorland fully a mile further inland. They 

 seldom or never visited the seashore. In the following autumn an 

 increased number, some ten or twelve birds, took up their abode in 

 the same district, and they spent the winter in a similar manner to 

 the trio, departing again in the spring. Next autumn witnessed 

 a larger arrival, and the colony has gone on growing from year to 

 year, until last winter there were several hundred birds. They are 

 very wary, keeping mostly to the central areas of fields, and it has 

 been found almost impossible to shoot them, probably less than a 

 dozen having been bagged during the whole period of occupation. 

 The crops, more particularly young grass, are now suffering seriously 

 from their depredations. Prior to the year mentioned wild geese 

 were never known to alight in the parish or immediate vicinity, 

 though long skeins of them passed overhead annually during 

 spring and autumn migrations. Douglas G. Hunter, Rosebrae, 

 Arbroath. 



Shoveler in Clyde. Regarding the Shoveler records (p. 155), 

 "in the end of April 1848, Sir George Leith Buchanan found 

 a nest at Ross containing twelve eggs " (the late James Lumsden, 

 F.Z.S., in " A Guide to the Natural History of Loch Lomond," 

 James Lumsden, F.Z.S., and Alfred Brown ; Glasgow, David Bryce 

 & Son, 1895). This refers to the Dumbartonshire nest mentioned, 

 and, of course, should take third place in the chronological list. 

 In Lanarkshire several pairs nest annually at Bishop Loch, and 

 have done so for at least twenty years. In Renfrewshire the 

 species nests at Castle-Semple Loch as stated, and also several 

 pairs at the Barr Meadows (the site of the Barr Loch, now 

 drained) in the same neighbourhood. In addition we have for 



