The Scottish Naturalist 8 r 



Red-necked Grebe (Podiceps rubricollis). — One killed near 

 the sea, to the east of Kingsbarns, February, 1856 ; another 

 shot at Eden, March, 1870. 



Great Northern Diver (Colymbus glacialis). — Rarely pro- 

 cured in adult plumage. Two fine males, in splendid con- 

 dition, were caught in the salmon nets at Tents Moor, in the 

 beginning of June, 1870. 



Fulmar Petrel (Proce/laria glacialis). — I found an adult 

 specimen of this bird on the beach, to the east of St, Andrews, 

 on the 6th July, 1867; a wounded bird was caught on the 

 West Sands, in October, 1868 \ and another was shot at Eden, 

 December, 1870. 



M lnx Shearwater (Puffiuus Anglorum). — One shot in 

 St. Andrews Bay, in June, 1870. 



Forked-tailed Petrel {Phalassidroma Leachii). — A fine 

 specimen of this bird was shot, on the 29th April, 1S68, amongst 

 the rocks, nearly opposite the Club House, St. Andrews. 



Storm Petrel (Thalassidroma pelagica). — Occasionally found 

 dead, or in a dying state, on the beach after storms. 



University, St. Andrews. 



Extinction of Bare Birds.— Permit me to say a few words upon the pro- 

 position made by your correspondent — Mr. H. O. Forbes — in the 2d number of 

 " The Scottish Naturalist," p. 47, viz., — That of arriving at a complete List of 

 Scottish Breeding Birds, by giving, from time to time, separate lists of birds 

 found breeding in limited areas, such as parishes. 



In making the following remarks, I hope you will not consider that I in any 

 way wish to be the means of limiting the information given by your various cor- 

 respondents, further than is necessary for the preservation of our rarer species. 

 Such a plan as your correspondent proposes (and I speak from painful ex- 

 perience) is one which has had, and will again have, the most baneful effects 

 upon the increase of our rarer birds. In thus stating a limited area, or areas, 

 wherein species are known to breed, instead of being satisfied with a more ex- 

 tensive district, your correspondent must surely have overlooked the fact that 

 unprincipled persons, dealers, and others, will be assisted thereby in obtaining, 

 (in some cases wholesale), eggs of many of our rarer birds, and this too in spite 

 of all attempts to frustrate them, by the proprietors or other persons really in- 

 terested in the welfare and increase of our rarer species. The consequences of 

 such minute information are easy to conjecture. In course of time, (and in 

 many cases no great length of time is required to effect it), species, comparatively 

 rare, or local in their distribution, will cea:e to exist as breeding species at all. 



