182 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



but two successive spells of "lying-up" failed to reveal its position, 

 nor indeed did we again see the female bird. The next day we 

 revisited the spot, but saw nothing of either of the birds, and spent 

 some time in fruitlessly tapping and turning over the loose stones in 

 the vicinity, with the hope of putting the female off the nest. On 

 returning in the evening, the male was seen on the point of a rock 

 a little way down the steep scree-face of the corrie, and just below 

 the point where he was first observed. He was singing beautifully, 

 and continued his song while under observation from a distance of a 

 few feet. The female was still invisible, and our chances of finding the 

 nest, owing to the difficulty of driving her out from among such 

 a chaos of loose blocks, seemed almost hopeless. The morning of 

 the 5 th, however, saw us back again, accompanied by Captain and Mrs. 

 Savile Reid, Mr. St. Quintin, and Mr. Ogilvie Grant of the British 

 Museum. No sooner had we reached the edge of the corrie than 

 the female was seen a little distance below flitting amongst the 

 stones. Taking up our position in line along the face, we had only 

 to wait ten minutes before the bird was observed to slip in under 

 a rock by one of the writers ; the spot was marked, and we knew the 

 nest was ours. Twenty feet or so below the brow of the corrie, and 

 at an elevation of 3700 feet above sea-level, the nest was placed 

 about 18 inches in amongst the loose granite blocks forming the 

 scree, in a position almost exactly similar to that of the nest taken 

 by one of us in Sutherland in 1886. The eggs, five in number, 

 were perfectly fresh, and the nest was composed chiefly of dry bents, 

 with a foundation of moss, and lined with innumerable hairs of the 

 red deer and a few white ptarmigan feathers. — Lionel W. Hinxman, 

 W. Eagle Clarke. 



The Red-baeked Shrike (Lanius collurio) nesting in Lanark- 

 shire. — In going over the collection of eggs of Mr. J. Harkness, 

 Cambuslang, a few months since, I was much pleased to have my 

 attention drawn to the eggs of the Red-backed Shrike, taken at Hall- 

 side, near Cambuslang, in the nesting season of 1892. Mr. Hark- 

 ness, while employed at the steel-works at Newton, had a message 

 sent to him on the afternoon of the 22nd of May by Mr. George 

 Jardine, son of the proprietor of Hallside, to the effect that he had 

 discovered a nest of the Red-backed Shrike, with eggs, there. Mr. 

 Harkness went to Hallside that evening, and found the nest placed 

 in a hawthorn hedge about five feet from the ground. It contained 

 six eggs, which were all taken. Two of these were exhibited at the 

 April meeting of the Andersonian Naturalists' Society. Mr. Harkness 

 informs me that both birds were frequently seen by him and by Mr. 

 Jardine. So far, their return has been looked for this year without 

 result. I have been unable to learn of any previous record of this 

 species nesting in Scotland, although Gray mentions some circum- 

 stances which point to this having happened ; but perhaps the editors 



