Natural History in Scotland. ,569 



our birds of passage, because it certainly emigrates from this 

 neighbourhood ; but is, I believe, found through the winter iii 

 Kent and some of the southern counties. '^ 



The Shrike (Lanius excubitor) is an uncommon bird. A 

 pair of them came this spring to a deserted and solitary 

 plantation bordering on the town ; but although I saw them 

 daily at a little distance, yet I could not approach near enough 

 to observe their habits, or trace them to their nest. There 

 was a great quantity of the elytra of beetles scattered on the 

 ground near the place which they seemed chiefly to haunt ; 

 from which I imagine these insects to have formed the prin- 

 cipal part of their food. On going to the plantation which 

 they frequented, on the 13th of September, I found they were 

 gone, nor have I been able to see them since ; and therefore 

 conclude they must have already taken their departure for 

 more genial climes. 



The Pied Flycatcher (Muscicapa luctuosa). This bird is 

 very uncommon in Britain. A pair of them visited us this 

 spring, on the 6th of Ma}^, and remained all the summer, 

 until the 19th of August, when they disappeared from their 

 breeding place ; but had probably only migrated to the sea- 

 beach, which abounds in insects at that season. This morning 

 (Sept. 7.), while sauntering along the sea-banks, I perceived 

 either my old friends, or some others, in company with the 

 spotted flycatchers and other soft-billed summer birds, evi- 

 dently congregating previously to the general autumnal mi- 

 gration. — E. H. Greenhow, North Shields^ Sept. 22. 1831. 



Several rare birds have been shot here lately, as follows ;*»*- 



iarus parasiticus, Arctic gull. Coracias garrula. Roller. 



t^^pupa ^pops, Hoopoe. Falcinellus pygmae'' us. Pygmy curlew. 



Of the first three, only one individual of each was shot : of 

 the pygmy curlew, six were seen, all sitting together on a rock 

 by the seaside ; four of them were shot. — E. H. G. 



Art. II. Natural History in Scotland. 



VARIOUS COUNTIES. 



Dumfriesshire. — An Adder {Coluber 'Berus) mth two 

 distinct Heads, which lived three days, and formed one of six 

 young ones taken from the body of an old adder, found in a 

 ditch at Drumlanrig, near Dumfries, is now in the museum 

 of Master Thomas Grierson, at his father's residence. Bait- 

 ford, near Thornhill, Dumfriesshire. — W. G. Baitford, 

 Oct, 8. 1831. AH .\v\ 



