190 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



about the beginning of February, but the species were not 

 distinguished. 



One puts aside this interesting work with feelings of regret. 

 Written out at the age of twenty, and based on a journal kept 

 between the author's sixteenth and eighteenth years, it is remark- 

 able for the breadth of view attained. It is not usual to find 

 naturalists at the age named already noting carefully all matters 

 relating to seasonal movements, song-periods, autumn-songs, dates 

 of nesting, and time occupied by different birds in incubation and 

 nutrition, experiences gained in rearing wild birds in confinement, 

 ifcc. And further, the work is quite individual in its character, 

 as it does not appear that he had any associate on whom he 

 could rely for assistance. The district to which it refers has 

 been rudely shorn of its natural attractions in recent years, verily, 

 "man marks the earth with ruin." The name persists certainly 

 in Millburn Street, Millburn Public School, and Millburn 

 Chemical Works, but that to the naturalist is a poor return for 

 the furze and the sand quarry, the burn (now covered up), the 

 currant bushes, and the walled pear tree where the Spotted 

 Flycatcher nested. The house was demolished a year ago. It 

 stood within the square now represented by Millburn, Holybank, 

 Kilberry and Scarba Streets, with houses for the humblest class 

 of worker. Elevation is indeed the only natural attraction left, 

 and from the neighbourhood ample views are still obtainable. 



