NOTES 67 



Great numbers of Snow-Buntings arrived on the coast about the 

 same time. On the 16th November, Mr D. Bruce, Dunbar, took 

 me to see a flock of 500 or 600 on a stubble-field near there; and 

 the same day I met with a flock of 20 to 30 at the mouth of 

 the Tyne, with which I believe there was a Lapland Bunting, but 

 the weather was very stormy at the time, the birds being in 

 consequence very restless and difficult to observe properly. A small 

 gull on the sands was probably a Little Gull, and a Greenshank 

 flew twice past me. — William Evans, Edinburgh. 



Continental Race of the Redbreast in East Ross. — It 



may be of interest to record that on the 16th September 1911 I 

 secured four continental Robins (Erithacus rubecula ru been la) by the 

 shore, to the south of Tarbatness Lighthouse. The coast just here 

 faces due east : the robins (all males) were flitting about the rocks 

 and debris by the shore at the foot of the cliffs, and were dis- 

 tinctly wild. Weather fine; wind light, west. — Annie C. Jackson, 

 Swordale. 



Honey-Buzzard reported from Wigtownshire. — I regret 

 to say that I have been misinformed about the Honey-Buzzard 

 reported by me in the January number, page 15, as having been 

 taken at Dunragit. I did not see the bird, but, having inquired 

 about certain features thereof, they seemed to me to indicate Pertiis 

 apivorus. It is now in the Zoological Gardens of London, whence 

 W. Seth-Smith reports — " It was only after it had been put out 

 into an aviary that I saw that it was merely a pale variety of the 

 Common Buzzard." The Common Buzzard breeds regularly in the 

 Galloway Hills. — Herbert Maxwell, Monreith. 



Bittern at Oban. — It may interest the readers of the Scottish 

 Naturalist to learn that a Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) was found 

 dead on the 17th January, on the Railway Pier here, probably 

 having flown against some obstruction which caused its death. — 

 Cecil H. Bisshopp, Oban. 



Occurrence of the Black-necked Grebe on the Cromarty 

 Firth. — On 2nd January 191 1 a Black-necked Grebe {Podieipes 

 nigricollis) was shot in the Cromarty Firth, and the skin came into 

 my possession. Unfortunately the sex of the bird was not 

 determined by the skinner. I had seen the grebe cruising about a 

 day or two before, but at such a distance from the shore that 

 rendered identification impossible. The weather at the time was 

 open, and the prevailing winds west, north-west to north. — Annie 

 C. Jackson, Swordale. 



