106 NAIRN. 



legs and feet clothed like those of a grouse, but in rather a less 

 degree. The bird, on dissection, proved to be a male. I saw a 

 bird very similar killed in Kirkcudbrightshire this year, which 

 I have no doubt was also a hybrid of the same kind. Hybrids 

 between the black grouse and capercailzie are not uncommon. 

 Those between the black and red grouse are very rare. 



In collections of eggs, the errors and wrongly named eggs 

 are endless. 



There is most decisive difference between the young herring 

 and the " garvie," both of which fish are caught at the same time 

 in the Firth of Forth. The garvie is a shorter and deeper fish in 

 proportion to its size, and has also a considerably smaller head 

 and mouth than the other fish. 



January IQth. In the Firth I see velvet ducks, eider ducks, 

 scoter, scaup ducks, mallard, wigeon, Gt. divers, B. throated divers 

 (immature), curlews, etc. ; immense flights of sandpipers of different 

 kinds, apparently mostly the ash-coloured sandpipers, pitch on the 

 extreme point of breakwater at the end of Leith Pier. Cor- 

 morants perch on the lighthouse or tower at the end of the pier. 



The squirrels in the country feed mostly on the seed of the 

 Scotch fir, cutting up the cones to get at them. 



A fox appears to hunt daily along the shore to west of Granton. 



Fine specimens of the grey plover in one of the poulterer's 

 shops. 



The quails are so rank and strong- tasted which I buy here 

 as to be quite unfit to eat. 



Found in a shop a very peculiar coloured new pheasant of a 

 uniform silver-grey, or French white. 



The raccoons almost invariably lose their eyesight in the 

 Zoological Gardens here. 



There is a wolf here so tame that he allows strangers to 

 caress him as quietly as a dog, and appears always anxious to be 

 taken notice of and petted. 



The black-headed bunting feed indiscriminately on corn and 

 insects. I find in their crops a number of small beetles, and also 

 oats. 



