AX UNPUBLISHED ORNITHOLOGY OF GLASGOW. 183 



not so common here as the preceding, still it is often enough seen 

 flying over our fields. ... I have never heard of any of 

 their nests having been found near the city, though, as they build 

 chiefly in trees, they may only have escaped observation." Within 

 a decade or two of the years covered by Dr. Grieve's diary, this 

 splendid bird must have vanished pretty completely from the 

 Glasgow district. The Hen-Harrier he had seen only once. " It 

 was in the August of '43, when walking along the Germiston 

 Road, near Provan Mill, I observed one of these birds, within 

 twenty yards of me, flying leisurely over a corn field, just about 

 a foot above it, beating every corner of it with great assiduity. 

 . . . ." Surprise is expressed at no owl coming under his 

 observation, though he had looked and listened carefully at night 

 for one. " The Cathedral might be a very fit place for a pair to 

 take up their abode." 



Of the Rook it is said that " they are not generally considered 

 here to cause much destruction by turning up the grain. . 

 This view being more generally held now, they are considered 

 more welcome, and are allowed to breed, while formerly every 

 attempt was made to cause their destruction. . . . This 

 town, in former days, could boast of large rookeries. The only 

 one that now exists is that in the College Green, reduced to a 

 few dozen nests, though once the largest, and certainly a more 

 favourable spot could not be had — besides the number of trees 

 and full scope for their quarrels, being protected by the Laws of 

 the University, by which any one was punishable for meddling 

 with or annoying them. Notwithstanding, they were gradually 

 becoming less numerous. One used to exist at the head of Queen 

 Street, around the house of one of the M.P.'s for the city, who 

 got nicknamed in consequence ['Craw Ewing'].* When his 

 house was taken down to make room for the present terminus, 

 the trees were felled likewise, but whether they formed an 

 alliance with their University friends or took up a new abode 

 cannot now be so easily determined. One pair built regularly 

 on a tree in a back green of one of the houses on the south side 

 of West George Street, but that being felled two years ago, they, 

 too, have left the city. A few still build at Fossil, and here and 

 there several nests may be seen, probably exiled for some 

 misdemeanour." 



* See "Trans. Nat. Hist. Socy., Glasgow," V»l. IV., N.S., p. 276, 



