70 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



word that he has in his collection the eggs taken near Drumna- 

 drochit, in that county, in 1864. 



Regarding the occurrence of this species in Aberdeenshire, Mr 

 Angus has been kind enough to send me the following particu- 

 lars : " This beautiful species rarely occurs with us. A specimen 

 in the Aberdeen museum was shot at Hazel Head, in May, 1842, 

 by Mr Mitchell, who informed me that he saw another in a cherry 

 tree at Arthur Seat. A male was obtained at Brucklay Castle in 

 May, 1849." To these Aberdeenshire records I may add the occur- 

 rence of a pair, male and female, near Peterhead, previous to 

 1835, in which year Mr Arbuthnot, the founder of the Peterhead 

 museum, where the specimens are still preserved, furnished a list 

 of local birds for publication by the compiler of the statistical 

 account of the parish. 



The Stirlingshire specimens already alluded to were observed 

 by Mr Peter Allan, bird-stuffer, Stirling, who watched a pair at 

 Ballochlean on the 18th June, 1867, and by Mr Thompson, Dun- 

 more, who shot a specimen on the Dunmore estate ten years ago. 



Regarding its occurrence in Orkney, Messrs Baikie and Heddle 

 write as follows: " Often seen in summer. Several were seen in 

 Sanday in October, 1809. A small flock appeared at Elsness on 

 12th May, 1822, after a gale of north-east wind. One was shot 

 in Sanday, 15th May, 1839. Two killed near Kirkwall in 1844, 

 are now in the Kirkwall museum." 



INSESSOKES. MERULID^. 



DENTIROSTRES. 



THE COMMON DIPPER. 



CINGLUS AQUATICUS. 

 Gobha uisge. Gobha dubh nan allt. Lon uisge. 



THE familiar " Water Craw" of Scotland is a bird of wide dis- 

 tribution in almost every county north of the Solway and the 

 Tweed. There is not a river or Highland burn of any consequence 

 but is frequented by several pairs, which may be met with every 

 few miles of its course, from the very fountain-head, where the 

 heath-embedded rocks are crowned with moss and ferns, down a 

 succession of waterfalls and mill-races, to the broad expanse at its 



