744 OBSERVATIONS OiV THE SONG OF BIRDS. 



But would the field ornithologist investigate the songs of par- 

 ticular birds, the evening is the best time, for as twilight ad- 

 vances, they one by one drop into silence, and the excellencies 

 of each may be duly appreciated. Truly, the most unalloyed 

 pleasures of rural life are known but to a few. 



And now I think I have brought my labours to a close, for 

 a time at least, and truly they have been labours of love, both 

 as regards the kind friend whom I so highly esteem, and the 

 science to which we are so devotedly attached. In other years, 

 in a foreign land, far from the groves of my forefathers, dear 

 will be the remembrance of the days which I spent in examin- 

 ing the habits of the birds of East Lothian. 



Archibald Hepburn. 

 Whittingham, 0th May 1840. 



PICUS PIPEA. GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 

 Vol. Ill, p. 80. 



Dr Robertson of Dunkeld has sent me a specimen of this 

 Woodpecker, shot in the Duke of AtholPs grounds. He states 

 that some years ago the species was not very uncommon in the 

 woods there, but that of late it has entirely disaj^peared, the 

 individual sent being the last that has been seen. 



