Transactions. 59 



Ou the 18th October there was received a Kingfisher [alcedo 

 ispltla) which was shot while hunting along a stream about a mile 

 from Kirkcudbright. This most beautiful of our British birds seems 

 to be ou the increase in this neighbourhood, as I have heard of 

 several being seen during the autumn — a rare occurrence in 

 former years. There being a constant demand for the feathers of 

 these birds by the makers of artificial flies, and also for their 

 skins for the adorning of ladies' hats, besides the desire of 

 the bird stuffers to secure a gem so bright and beautiful, furnishes 

 a constant motive for their destruction ; while during severe frosts 

 many are often starved to death. With all these hindrances to 

 their increase, to hear of their being more frequently seen was sur- 

 prising. Ancient superstition attributed many virtues to the king- 

 fisher. Its skin was supposed to be, when kept in a wardrobe, a 

 preservative of woollen stuffs. It likewise averted thunderstorms, 

 and there was a general belief that the dead bird, when hung by 

 a thread, would always turn its bill to the point of the compass 

 from which the wind blew. 



A Hare (lepus timidusj of remai'kable form and colour was 

 brought to the Museum on the 11th of October. It had been 

 injured when young, so that one of its hind legs was turned up 

 over its back. The stump of its thigh, which touched the ground 

 when it was sitting or slowly hopping, was covered with a hard, 

 horny skin, which must have prevented it from feeling pain when 

 this part was brought into contact with the rough ground. It 

 showed a wonderful recovery without surgical aid from what 

 must have been a very severe injury. Whatever may have been 

 the exciting cause — whether occasioned by the shock it I'eceived 

 when injured, or the long-continued pain it must have endured, 

 or perhaps through insufficient food — its colour, instead of being- 

 the ordinary brown of the hare, was a pale grey along the back 

 — not like the grey of the rabbit or that of the blue or varying 

 hare, but a distinctly different grey, the breast and belly being 

 the ordinary brown. The ears were abnormally large. 



o. — T//e Cairus of Kirkcudbrightshire. 

 By Mr Fkedekick E. Coles, Cor. Mem., y.A., Scut. 



Throughout the very varied scenery of our beautiful 

 Stewartry no relic of pre-historic times is more striking, none 

 more fre;|uently seen, than the vast conical mounds of stones 



