80 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



gains melody, and has a somewhat wild and bewildering effect on 

 the listener as he stands on the dreary waste of heath. 



Numbers of Ring Ouzels breed in Dumbartonshire, Stirlingshire, 

 Ayrshire, Wigtownshire, and a few in the Upper Ward of Lanark- 

 shire. They descend, as the autumn advances, to the lower 

 grounds, where they frequent gardens, and are not in general 

 looked upon as favourites, being then " dingy and tuneless" thieves, 

 devouring cherries and gooseberries with a keen relish, after a six 

 months' experience of their mountain diet. In October they slip 

 away southwards, and leave the West of Scotland at the Mull of 

 Galloway, where young birds occasionally lose their reckoning, 

 and dash themselves against the lantern of the lighthouse. 



I have never been able to trace this species on any of the Outer 

 Hebrides, although Mr Yarrell states that Mr Bullock obtained 

 its nest on some of the islands, probably, however, one of the 

 inner group. Mr Elwes informs me that it has been occasionally 

 found in Islay. It is likewise an occasional visitant to Orkney, 

 small flocks having been observed in 1822, 1829, and 1835. Num- 

 bers appeared in these islands in October, 1836. These occur- 

 rences seem to have escaped Mr Yarrell's notice. 



THE GOLDEN ORIOLE. 

 ORIOLUS GALBULA. 



THE late Dr Fleming mentions, in his " History of British Animals," 

 that he saw a specimen of this bird, which was killed in the island 

 of Arran in 1807; and in the same year another example of the 

 species was taken at Restalrig, near Edinburgh. Besides these 

 instances, mention is made of a third, shot in Berwickshire, in the 

 statistical account of the parish of Cockburnspath, by the Rev. 

 Andrew Baird, who was a very careful and accurate observer. 

 No record of any other Scottish specimen has been made, so far 

 as I know. It may be worth noting here, that a fine Golden 

 Oriole was shot in June of the present year (1868) in the Isle of 

 Man, and taken in the flesh to Mr Hastings, bird stuffer in Dum- 

 fries, for preservation. 



The habits of so showy and attractive a bird are, of course, not 

 easily studied in a country where the rarer visitors enjoy but a 

 brief existence amid so many watchful collectors. We have, there- 



