68 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



I believe, the prevalence of easterly gales, we have also had an 

 nnusual number of captures of the Short-eared Owl. 



It is one of our resident birds, but a great addition to its 

 numbers occasionally takes place in autumn, and this year 

 especially so. Mr Small tells me he has had no fewer than 

 fifteen sj)ecimens recently sent to him, both males and females, 

 in the month of October and the beginning of November. Two 

 were from North Berwick, one from near Heriot, another from 

 Liberton, one from Humbie, and others from Saughton- 

 mains, near Edinburgh, Lasswade and Stranraer : these are 

 a few of the instances, to show the localities where they were 

 got. Mr Small exhibits one or two specimens. Messrs 

 Sanderson and J. Keddie also send a pair of these owls, a male 

 shot near Musselburgh on the 6th October, and a female near 

 Edinburgh on the 21st October. These birds show well the 

 general lighter colour of the old male, and the darker and 

 more yellow colour of the larger female bird. 



Mr D. Carfrae tells me he has also had some four speci- 

 mens of these Short-eared Owls from this neighbourhood in 

 the end of October and beginning of November. 



6. Podiceps atcritus — The Eared Grebe. — The last birds I 

 have to notice are a pair of the Eared Grebes, sent for inspec- 

 tion by Mr D. Carfrae. They were shot by Mr Taylor, in 

 Donnibristle Bay on the Eirth, in the beginning of last De- 

 cember. These birds have been generally considered very 

 rare in this neighbourhood — Mr Macgillivray indeed in his 

 "British Birds," says, he has very seldom met with it in 

 Scotland. I had the pleasure of exhibiting to the Society 

 one got near Cramond some thirteen years ago, and I find our 

 esteemed member, Mr Eobert Gray, in his very valuable work 

 on the "Birds of the West of Scotland" — which, however, 

 includes a great deal of important information on the birds 

 of the whole of Scotland — has pointed out that this bird is not 

 so very uncommon a visitant on the shores of East Lothian. 



It has been overlooked by collectors, who have not noticed 

 the difference between it and the other small species of Grebe; 

 though it is easily distinguished by its small size, and the 

 upturned character of its bill. 



