Transactions. 27 



vours to get at the birds within it was caught on the limed twigs. 

 It lived for more than a fortnight with me ; I fed it with small 

 birds, mice, soaked bread, and hemp seed. It had a capital 

 appetite, but the food was unsuitable in some respects. It fixed 

 the birds and mice between the wires of the top of its cage, and 

 tore them in pieces before eating them. The species is of very 

 rare occurrence in the Stewartry. Fieldfares and Redwings have 

 been very seldom seen, while during October and November Song 

 Thrushes and Missal Thi'ushes were exceptionally numerous. 

 Sporting friends complain of the scarcity of Snipes and Wood- 

 cocks, and it is evident these have not reached our district in their 

 usual numbers. A Spotted Crake was procured at Lockerbie 

 House in September, and I had an opportunity of examining this 

 rare species while it was in Mr Hastings' possession for jjreserva- 

 tion. The rarest bird I have to record is a Black-tailed Godwit, 

 shot on the Nith, and sold to Mr Hastings by the young man who 

 procured it. Mr Hastings tells me it is the first local specimen 

 he has had in the course of his long experience. The great 

 storms of October and November will long be remembered for the 

 destruction of propei-ty and loss of life, both on sea ai\d land, and 

 these storms were not without an influence on the birds. Great 

 numbei-s of Guillemots, and Razorbills, and a few Puflins were 

 washed ashore on several parts of the Stewartry coasts. At one or 

 two places on the Solway they might have been taken up in cart- 

 loads. This was more particularly the case after the storm of the 

 14th October. They were nearly all young birds, ami most of 

 them were in poor condition. A specimen of Leach's (or the 

 Fork-tailed) Petrel was sent me which had been picked up near 

 Cai'sethorn on the morning of the awful tempest that raged during 

 the night of the 21st and 22d November. Mr Hastings also got 

 a specimen at the same time from the same coast. These two are, 

 I think, the first got in Kirkcudbrightshire. The species is not 

 scarce off" the outlying points of the west coast of Scotland, but it 

 is only in the gi-eatest storms that it .seeks the comparative shelter 

 of such places as the Solway Fii-th. Mr Hastings got a Little Auk 

 in the middle of December from Mr M'Caskie, gamedealer. I 

 have not yet learned in what part of the district this little Arctic 

 wanderer was procured, but its occurrence here is doubtless attri- 

 butable to the prevalence of stormy weather. There is a specimen 

 of this bird in the Observatory, which was procured on the 



