Br Smith's Ornithological Notes. 33 



I. Ornithological Notes. By John Alexander Smith, 

 M.D., F.E.S.E., etc. (Specimens exhibited.) 



(Read 20tli November 1878.) 



1. Otis tarda, the Great Bustard.— This fine specimen of a 

 female of the great bustard was shot on the island of Stron- 

 say, Orkney, in the autumn of 1877. It is the property of 

 Colonel Balfour of Balfour, who writes that a male bird of 

 the same species was killed in Kent a week after this one 

 was shot, and he supposes they may have probably been a 

 pair of stragglers which had got separated — driven out of 

 their course on the Continent, I suppose, by adverse winds. 

 The female is a much smaller bird than the male. It is now 

 one of our rarest stragglers, or visitors, to any part of Scot- 

 land, very few instances of its occurrence being recorded, 

 although in old times it was apparently a permanent resident. 

 It occurred more abundantly in England. Mr Keddie, Mr 

 Sanderson's assistant, has called my attention to the curious 

 fact that the down at the roots of many of the feathers (as 

 well as of their accessory plumes) of the great bustard (some 

 of which I exhibit) are of a beautiful pink, changing above 

 into pale buff colour. This peculiarity is present in the 

 feathers in different parts of the body, whether they are 

 coloured or pure white above ; it is less so, or absent, on head. 

 He also tells me he has noticed a similar peculiarity in the 

 little bustard {Otis tetrax). 



2. Hybrid between Capercailzie and Blackcock. — A beauti- 

 ful male specimen of this peculiar bird, which at one time 

 had applied to it the specific name Tetrao medius. The bird 

 was shot at Ardkinglas, Argyleshire, on the 14th of October. 



3. Totamcs glareola, the Wood Sandpiper. — This beautiful 

 bird was shot on the 3d October by Sir George Leith Buchanan, 

 Bart., on Lochlomond. It is one of our rare or little noticed 

 sandpipers. In 1856 I exhibited to the Society a young bird 

 which was killed on the 14th August near Heriot, Midlothian. 



4. Anas hoschas. — A pure white variety of this bird, a 

 female, the property of David Carnegie, Esq., who writes to 

 Mr Sanderson, birdstuffer, that it was recently shot on 



VOL. V. c 



