ORNITHOLOGY OP ST. ANDREWS. 287 



by the sea on our shores at the present day. There are some other facts con- 

 nected with the New Red Sandstone which are worthy of notice. The extreme 

 rarity of argillaceous materials in the lower beds of the New Red Sandstone 

 formation, and its great abundance in the upper. The lower beds are altogether 

 pebbly or arenaceous, with a few nodules of clay, whereas the upper beds con- 

 tain strata of clay many feet in thickness, and there seems to be a gradual 

 increase of argillaceous deposit as we rise in the scale of the strata. Many of 

 these strata of Marl appear to have been deposited much thicker than they are 

 now, for the upper surface of them is ridged and furrowed as if strong action of 

 water had passed over them and carried a good deal of their materials away. 

 And this is probably the origin of the great number of nodules of Clay which 

 exist in the New Red Sandstone strata. 



All these conditions which have been mentioned serve to shew under what 

 circumstances the New Red Sandstone was deposited, and they also render it 

 little remarkable that traces (for they are but traces) of organized beings are so 

 extremely rare. It is true that some fossils from the New Red Sandstone were 

 exhibited by the Rev. James Yates at the late meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion in this town, but these were entirely the fossils of the Coal measures, which 

 were discovered in some of the New Red Sandstone in Worcestershire ; and we 

 think it likely, that the circumstances of their being discovered would be either, 

 first, that they were in embedded masses and fragments of the Coal measures 

 which had been torn from the places where they were in situ, and so mixed with 

 the pebbles and other ingredients of the New Red Sandstone, which is not at all 

 unlikely, for pebbles from the Coal measures are abundant in some beds of the 

 New Red Sandstone, as we ourselves have seen ; or, secondly, that in that part 

 of England the causes which had tended to produce the Coal measures and the 

 Coal measure fossils and plants, had not altogether ceased to act when the causes 

 which produced the New Red Sandstone had come into operation. 



NOTES ON THE ORNITHOLOGY OF ST. ANDREWS. 

 By Henry Buist. 



The Dipper, Cinclus aquaticus. — This active little bird is by no means com- 

 mon in the immediate neighbourhood of St. Andrews, although it is occasionally 

 noticed on the banks of the Kinnes-burn close to the town. It may, however, be 

 seen in abundance at the Kenlie, a small stream about four miles distant. 



The Fieldfare, Turdus pilaris. — Visits us regularly every year. In The 

 Naturalist, Vol. II., page 326', an instance is recorded of this bird breeding in 



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