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" BIRDS OF AYRSHIRE." 



Some three years since; a manifestly incomplete " Birds of 

 Ayrshire," by the editor (George Rose), appeared in the Annals 

 of the Kilmarnock Glenfield Ramblers, No. 5, printed at 

 the office of the Kilmarnock Standard. Another part (No. 6) 

 of the Annals of this Society has just appeared, and contains 

 a supplement (pp. 67-72) to the list of Ayrshire birds in the 

 preceding part. It contains little of importance, but a few 

 of the more interesting occurrences may be mentioned. 

 A pair of what Mr, Nicol Hopkins took to be the Greenland 

 Wlieatear {S. cb. leucorrhoa) was observed by him on October 

 24th, 1908, presumably in the Darvel district, where he 

 resides, and where he saw a Mealy Redpoll {L. linaria) on 

 February 5th, 1908. The alleged occurrences of the Girl 

 Bunting and Little Bunting are not likely to be accepted 

 without demur. Neither is autlienticated , and it might have 

 been well if these alleged occurrences had been withheld until 

 there was some confirmation, as we know has been done in 

 another quarter with statements relating to the occurrence 

 of the Girl and the Ortolan Buntings in Ayrshire. Doonside 

 and Loudoun are added to the list of nesting-sites of the 

 Heron {A. cinerea). The former locahty is one previously 

 tenanted. It is further stated that a pair nested and raised 

 two young at Muirkirk in 1908. Bewick's Swan {C. bewicki), 

 claimed as new to Ayrshire, has been kno^\^l from Gray's time 

 till the present year as an Ayrshire bird. A Glaucous Gull 

 {L.glaucus) wa,s observed in February, 190S, by Mr. McCrindle, 

 Dunure. There is one preserved at Dunure which was obtained 

 in that locality. A Great Skua (M. catarrhactes) at Dunure 

 in July, 1906, and the observations on the Manx Shearwater 

 (P. anglorum) in flocks of at least a hundred in the Firth of 

 Clyde are the only other matters calling for notice. J.P. 



