TRANSACTIONS. 69 
kept at the Craigdarroch Inn, Moniaive. It was allowed perfect free- 
dom, but never attempted to escape. One Lamb Fair day a shep- 
herd’s dog, having stolen a piece of beef, retired to a quiet corner of 
the inn yard to eat it. The “Gled” happened to be perched on 
the roof of an adjoining outhouse at the time, and the dog had no 
sooner squatted with his prize than the ‘‘Gled” swooped down 
upon him, seized the piece of beef, and bore it off to his perch, 
the startled collie meanwhile bolting up the nearest passage. The 
Common Buzzard (Luteo vulgaris) is said to have been common 
thirty or forty years ago, but it is rarely met with now, and I have 
never seen the bird personally. The gamekeeper on the Craigdar- 
roch estate informs me that he has once or twice seen a pair of 
Buzzards “ sailing” down the glen as far as Craigdarroch, but they 
always turned there and made away back again. When seen it 
has always been during the winter months, and there is not the 
least likelihood of the bird being met with as a nesting species. 
Nocturnal birds of prey are represented by four species: The 
Long-Eared Owl ( Otus vulgaris), which is not common ; the Short- 
Eared Owl (Otus Brachyotus), rarer still; the Barn Owl] (S¢rix 
Flammea), which, down to afew years ago, nested regularly at 
Hastings Hall; and last, the Tawny Owl (Syraium Striduda), 
our only really common species. The Spotted Flycatcher 
(Muscicapa Grisola) may be considered common. It is a bird 
unconventional alike in its choice of nest sites and its selection of 
materials. Some years ago we found a nest in the vicinity of a 
joiner’s workshop, built entirely of shavings, and placed in the 
crevice of a stone bridge. 
The Common Dipper (Cinclus Aquaticus), a bird often spoken 
of as scarce, is common in Glencairn. It is met with along all our 
streams, and there are few places suited to its habits where I could 
not undertake to find a nest. It is one of our earliest nesting 
species, and often has its young hatched before the majority of our 
birds have even thought about egg-laying. I knew a nest this 
year in which the brood was hatched during the third week of 
April. It is unaccountable to me how the Dipper is so often 
overlooked as a songster. An attractive bird, with a good deal of 
individuality about it, and therefore often described, it is at the 
some time but rarely we see it referred to as a singer. Thus, for 
instance, in a series of well-written articles on bird life lately con- 
tributed to Good Words, the writer includes the Dipper in his 
list of winter residents, but omits it in his list of winter songsters, 
