NOTES 285 



miles above Stonehaven, on the Slug Road, a point well known to 

 motorists as the worst turning on the long way to Braemar. In 

 Sim's Vertebrate Fauna of Dee a number of occurrences are 

 recorded from July 1845 to May 1899, and the following statement 

 is added: "The nest, however, of this species has not been found in 

 Dee." We are sure of the species, as the white forehead of the 

 male was quite distinct. — A. MacUonald, Durris, by Aberdeen. 



Pied Flycatcher in Dumfriesshire. — The most easterly 

 range of this species in Dumfriesshire known to me in 1910, was 

 at Bonshaw, on Kirtle Water. The Rev. George F. Courtenay 

 informs me that in June 191 5 he came across a pair of Pied 

 Flycatchers feeding their young, in a nest situated in a hole high up 

 in the trunk of an oak-tree, near Langholm. — (Capt.) Hugh S. 

 Gladstone, War Office, London. 



Crested Tit in Nairnshire. — On i6th May last, when passing 

 through a Scots firwood between Loch Loy and the old bar of 

 Findhorn, I was greatly pleased to hear the familiar call of the 

 Crested Tit, and had no difficulty in getting a satisfactory look at 

 the bird, which I pointed out to two or three of my brother officers 

 who were with me. The bird was somewhat excited, and I think it 

 had a nest, but time did not permit of my making a thorough search 

 for it. The locality is in Nairnshire. This record would seem to 

 indicate an extension of range via the Darnaway forest. — G. G. 

 Blackwood, Fort George. 



Spring Moult of Common and Black-headed Gulls. — As 



little seems to have been written on the spring moult of Gulls, with 

 the exception of Mr Bahr's and Mr Kennedy's observations on Black- 

 headed and Herring Gulls respectively (see British Birds, vol. iii., 

 105, and vol. vii., 306), we think it may be worth recording the state 

 of plumage of two Gulls found dead by us this spring. On the 29th 

 of March 19 15 we picked up a Common Gull (male) dead in Largo 

 Bay. At first glance the bird appeared to be still in winter plumage, 

 but on closer examination we found the whole body was in moult. 

 The top of the head, nape and back, and the whole underside from 

 the chin to the vent, had numerous new feathers in quill or half 

 grown. The wings and tail, on the other hand, showed no sign of 

 moult. Professor Sutherland, who examined the body, both of this 

 and the following bird for us, says: "the cause of death was a 

 gunshot wound or wound of the liver, hsemorrhage, suppuration, 

 extension of abscess to pericardium. Suppuration, pericarditis, 



