NOTES 333 



NOTES. 



otter (Lutra vulgaris) at Barrahead Lighthouse. — A 



strange incident happened here recently : I went to shut in our 

 hens for the night and found the place quite deserted except for a 

 lovely brown Otter which was lying sound asleep in one of the lower 

 nests. I at once shut up every outlet and went in search of the 

 men, who took it alive and put it in a box. Late at night we fed it 

 with fish, which it ate greedily. When morning came we went to 

 visit it, but found it had eaten its way out of the box and escaped. 

 It seems strange that an Otter should have visited us here, as the 

 lighthouse is 690 feet above the sea. Perhaps it had lost its way in 

 the dense fog that prevailed about that time. — Margaret E. 

 MoUAT, Barrahead Lighthouse, September 19 15. 



Corn-crake at St Kilda. — A St Kilda correspondent informs 

 me that the Corn-crake has bred on the main island, Hirta, this 

 year, and that two young birds were captured about 21st 

 September, when the grass was being cut. He remarks that this is 

 the first time that such an event has happened in his experience. 

 Although St Kilda has been much visited by naturalists in the 

 summer time, yet, so far as I have been able to ascertain, this is the 

 only occasion on which this species has occurred there during the 

 past three-quarters of a century. It is alluded to under the name 

 of "Craker,"by Martin, who visited St Kilda in June 1697; and 

 John Macgillivray, who was there in the summer of 1840, states 

 that a few were present among the corn, and that their cry might be 

 heard all night long. Lastly, it was heard by James Wilson in the 

 first week of August 1841. These seem to be the only visitors to 

 the island who have made mention of this species in the past, and 

 the bird is evidently only to be regarded as a casual summer visitor 

 finding its way there at long intervals. — W. Eagle Clarke. 



The Down-iining of Ducks' Nests. — In the Editorial of 

 the October number of the Scottish JVaturalist reference is made 

 to my paper on " Notes on the Moults and Sequence of Plumage in 

 some British Ducks," which appeared in the July number of 

 British Birds. W'xih. regard to nest-down it is said, " we are given 

 to understand that it alone is 'used for embeddinn; the ecus in 

 during incubation.'" I do not think my remarks on nest-down 

 should have led to this conclusion ; and I wish to make it clear 

 that they were not so intended. I have not had the opportunity 

 as yet of carefully examining the lining of the nests of those 

 ducks I have dealt with ; doubtless nest-down is an important 



