NOTES 197 



Gannet with Black Eyes on Bass Rock. In 1914 those 

 of us interested in watching the Clannets on tlie Bass were surprised 

 to notice one with black eyes. The bird was again seen this season 

 nesting within 3 feet of its former nesting site. We thought possibly 

 the readers of the Scottish Naturalist might find the record interesting. 

 The black eyes made the bird very noticeable, and during the time 

 between 1914 and 1920 it certainly was not breeding at the part of 

 the rock where we saw it those two years. Andrew White, Bass 

 Rock. 



Green Sandpiper in Forfarshire. On 7th October tq2o, 

 about noon, I observed a specimen of the Green Sandpiper a 

 hundred yards or so below the railway bridge spanning the Elliot 

 Water near its mouth. The day was bright, with a light wind, 

 veering from S.E. to W., following upon two or three days of very 

 rough and wet weather from the east. There were large numbers 

 of other birds passing south, such as Pied Wagtails, Skylarks, Linnets, 

 Swallows, etc. The Sandpiper was feeding in the ooze at the side 

 of the stream, and on being disturbed, it moved a little farther 

 on, and shortly afterwards flew away down the coast. There does 

 not appear to be any previous record of the occurrence of this 

 species in the district. Douglas G. Hunter, Rosebrae, Arbroath. 



The Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui). The note by 

 Miss L. J. Rintoul and ,Miss E. V. Baxter on the abundance of this 

 elegant insect on the east coast in June (page 168) may serve me 

 as excuse for comparing the result of observation by these ladies 

 with my own on the west coast. I have seen only two Painted 

 Ladies here this year, both in September. The past season, indeed, 

 has been most unfavourable for a display of the larger Lepidoptera, 

 though Red Admirals ( V. atala?ita) have taken advantage of every 

 bright autumnal blink to sun themselves. But the Painted Lady is 

 never a common butterfly in Galloway; whole seasons pass with- 

 out my seeing a single specimen. The point which I think worthy 

 of note is that, whereas your correspondents describe the large 

 number of Painted Ladies at Fowlsheugh as "all in a very 

 worn and tattered condition," suggestive of immigrants from the 

 Continent, those which I saw here were both fresh and glossy, 

 strong in flight, evidently natives. 



On this brilliant sunny day, 8th October, the Red Admirals are 

 in the garden in scores. I counted seventeen within a space of half- 

 a-dozen square yards on a group of Asters. The Silver Y. moths 

 {Pliisia ga?H?na) are literally in hundreds, but not a Painted Lady 

 among them. In my youth the Peacock butterfly (^Vanessa io) 



