i8o ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



our readers may have, would be much welcomed by Mr. Gladstone ; 

 and should be addressed to him at Lannhall, Thornhill, Dumfries- 

 shire. 



Prosecution under the Wild Birds Acts. — In Stranraer Sheriff 

 Court on May 14th, Thomas Inglis, gamekeeper, Barnoorkrie, was 

 charged with a contravention of the Wild Birds' Protection Act by 

 having in his possession five Ravens which had been recently taken. 

 He pleaded guilty. The Plscal asked that the birds should be 

 forfeited and disposed of. Ravens were in much request as pets, 

 and a good market could be found for them. No good object 

 would be gained in liberating them, for he was told that after a 

 considerable period of captivity they would be incapable of provid- 

 ing for themselves. Accused said he took the birds in ignorance. 

 He had always been accustomed to destroy them. Slieriff Watson 

 imposed a penalty of 6s. for each bird, 30s. in all, with the alterna- 

 tive of seven days, and ordered that the birds should be forfeited 

 and sold. 



Bird Notes from Fife. — A Golden Oriole $ was got at Mark- 

 inch about May loth. Its plumage is in very fine condition, but 

 the bird was very emaciated. The head is greenish yellow ; back, 

 yellowish green ; wings, blackish brown with a faint green sheen and 

 a yellow speculum ; tail feathers, black with yellow tips, the latter 

 colour extending some way up the inner webs of the feathers, the two 

 centre tail feathers dark greenish and rather acuminate. Under- 

 parts greyish white, striated longitudinally with dark grey ; flanks 

 yellowish, under tail-coverts yellow, bill red-brown. 



We are enabled to report a Scops-Owl $ through the kindness 

 of Mr. Harry Gilmour, who informed us of its capture. It was got 

 at Montrave on the i6th May. 



A Great Grey Shrike was seen at Gilston on the 22nd April. — 

 Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul and Evelyn V. Baxter. 



Increase of Goldfinches in Central Scotland (Forth) and Siskins' 

 Nesting. — A correspondent informs me in lit, April 30th, 1908, 

 of the increase of Goldfinches which have been so rare of 

 late years in the district. He writes : " I have seen one every day 

 feeding for some eight days regularly at one locality in 1900." 

 Also at another locality in Forth, " two feeding on thistle-tops in 

 September." At a third, " one passed me quite close last season." 

 He also speaks of their former comparative abundance at several 

 localities he was personally acquainted with on the south side of 

 the Firth of Forth, when he was a boy — e.g. Preston Hall estate : 

 a nest of young got away at Gorebridge, and " I caught two of 

 them; and in 1885 I caught one near Cockpen Church. In 1888 

 my father got a nest in an alder tree near Crichton Castle, and the 

 old birds (also caught) brought up the young ones in the house." 



