NOTES 95 



light moved and shone on the birds themselves, they looked like 

 flashes of silver in the surrounding darkness. The gulls I saw were 

 Black-headed and a few Herring Gulls, mostly immature. The birds 

 were usually to be seen in the evening, between 8 and lo o'clock. 

 I never saw them during the night. — Mary G. S. Best, Chelsea. 



[Although, as a rule, we only publish observations having a 

 direct bearing upon the fauna of Scotland, an exception may be 

 made in the case of the above note, since it may be read with 

 interest in connection with the communication on the same subject 

 in our March number. — Eds.] 



Irruption of Little Auks. — One was picked up in Kilmacolm 

 on 15th December; another in Wraes Wood, Houston Parish, on 

 7th January ; and another near Linwood about same date. — T. 

 Thornton MacKeith, Kilmacolm. 



On Monday, 14th of December, two Little Auks (one of them 

 alive) were found near Torrance, Stirlingshire, and one was found 

 newly dead at Loch Ardinning, near Strathblane, on 15th. On one 

 of these dates a bird was seen at Glenorchard as it rose out of 

 a hill drain and flew about 50 yards. One was found dead near 

 Stidreggs, Beattock, Dumfriesshire. One of my shepherds at 

 Kinnelhead, Beattock, found a bird dead there. These two birds 

 were found on the 14th or 15th. A gamekeeper said he believed 

 he had seen a Little Auk on the Earshaig Burn near Beattock 

 on one of these days. It was able to fly. It is noticeable that 

 there is not a single record from "Solway" in the map in The 

 Annals of Scot. Nat. Hist., April 1895, to illustrate "The Wreck 

 of the Little Auk." On ist January I found a dead Little Auk 

 near Crieff. — James Bartholomew, Torrance. 



[The "irruption" of 191 1- 12 reached the "Solway" area — see 

 Scot. Nat. for April 1912. — Eds.] 



