44 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



NOTES 



Voles, Shrews, and Mice in Lauderdale. — This winter, 

 Voles and such small creatures have infested the garden as well as 

 the fields. In a garden here we have captured several species. 

 Two ordinary mouse traps are placed, one by a small rockery, and the 

 other close to the trunk of a wall apple tree. Field and Bank Voles 

 have both been trapped beside the apple tree, the majority being of 

 the latter species. Common Shrews also enter, and Long-tailed Field- 

 mice, while House-mice are sometimes got. One morning — 26th 

 December — four were found in the two traps, a Shrew and a Long- 

 tailed Mouse by the rockery, and a Common Vole and a Long-tailed 

 Mouse by the apple tree. On each of three other mornings, a Bank 

 Vole was caught in the latter trap. A frame, where some antirrhinum 

 cuttings were planted, was badly infested with them. We tried 

 every means of excluding them, making it as close as possible, but 

 they seemed to find their way inside by means of a mole run under- 

 neath. One or two wall apple trees have been a good deal injured 

 by barking ; the mice climb to some of the slenderest twigs. Many 

 of the buds are also nibbled off. Other things suffer earlier in the 

 season : some rows of cabbage and other small seeds are almost 

 entirely destroyed, the mice making a mole-like run along them. One 

 morning lately, an unfortunate Redbreast had sprung one of the 

 traps, and was found dead in it. This has been the second tragedy 

 of the kind in my experience ; some years since, we found two 

 Hedge-sparrows dead, side by side, in another. The traps are 

 always baited with oatmeal. — William McConachie, Lauder. 



Hawfinches in Lauderdale. — During the last days of 

 December, and until the date of writing in the middle of January, 

 Hawfinches, for such an unusual bird, have been very much in 

 evidence about Lauder. Their call has grown quite familiar to 

 myself — a shrill tseep, recalling one of the notes of the Spotted 

 Flycatcher. On 20th December I recognised four of these birds, 

 two males and two females, in a black poplar tree. They flew 

 afterwards to some hawthorns in the Manse park, where they set to 

 work to devour the haws, which had been very plentiful, and are 

 still in great quantities on some of the trees. Six birds were seen 

 in them on the second day of the year, and several constantly 

 descended to feed on the fallen berries in the grass. A close watch 

 was kept every day, and it was very pleasant to observe as many as 



