Tue Stupy oF Birp LIFE. 157 
very commonest birds are really little understood, and some new 
habit of the sparrow or the starling or other common bird on the 
high road to becoming a permanent habit is often just as valuable 
knowledge as the discovery of some rare bird or of some bird in 
a place not frequented by it before. 
And so the ornithologist can always appreciate his own 
work without too much self-satisfaction and without undue bias, 
and in time, if he altogether fails to meet with a spirit like his 
own, he will make the best of it. 
“Oxtp Morrtatity’”’ In KirKcUDBRIGHT. By Mr JosEPH 
Rosison, Kirkcudbright. 
A short paper was then read by the Secretary from Mr J.- 
Robison, Kirkcudbright, which detailed some incidents in the 
life of Robert Paterson, supposed to be “ Old Mortality.”’ The 
first incident was Paterson’s petitioning the St. Cuthbert’s Lodge 
of Freemasons for reception and admission into their Order, 
and the second referred to a decree granted against Paterson for 
6s in favour of a Kirkcudbright shoemaker, for the hire of a 
mare for ten days five years previously. 
25th April, 1908. 
SPECIAL DISTRICT MEETING. 
Town Hatt, ANNAN. 
Chairman—Mr H. Steuart GLapsTone, Yr. of Capenoch. 
KELHEAD LIMESTONE. 
Mr W. M‘Pherson, F.G.S., submitted a paper on a section 
of the carboniferous limestone found at the quarry at Kelhead, 
and also showed numerous specimens of fossils. Mr M‘Pherson 
stated that the quarry was situated about four miles from Annan, 
on the upper Dumfries road, opposite to Kinmount House. It 
had been worked for nearly one hundred years. The old works, 
nearly half-a-mile in length, were quite covered by fallen debris 
from the alluvial deposits above. He had been unable to find 
