Two Bits of Clay from the Elephant Bed at Kilmaurs. 451 



he gives ^ full particulars of two nests, discovered by his 

 friend, Mr Weir, in the trunks of decayed Scots firs in a 

 plantation near Bathgate, in July 1838. The first was found 

 on the 22d of the month, and contained five young birds; the 

 second was found on the 28th, and contained five eggs. 

 These were the only nests Mr Weir had known in the long 

 period of 14 years. Since then the species has been reported 

 to breed in several parts of Scotland, — and doubtless has 

 done so frequently, — but I do not think that a really 

 undoubted nest has been recorded, from the valley of the 

 Forth at any rate, since the two found by Mr Weir in 1838, 

 till now. 



XXXVII. Note on the Contents of Two Bits of Clay from the 

 Elephant Bed at Kilmaurs in 1817. By James 

 Bennie, Esq., H.M. Geological Survey of Scotland. 



(Read 20th May 1885.) 



The two bits of clay, the subject of this note, came to 

 Edinburgh along with half of the elephant tusk of 1817. 

 They were sent by Mr Alex. Hood, Surgeon in Kilmarnock, 

 and a note regarding them was read by the secretary, Mr 

 Patrick Neill, which was said ^ to give a " more particular 

 description of the fossil tusks than a notice read at the 

 meeting of June 7th of the same year." ^ It is added that Mr 

 Hood presented the part of the tusk he sent in to the Society. 

 That " more particular description " seems not to have been 

 published or even preserved, nor does any further notice of 

 this discovery occur till 1822, when Mr Bald, after describ- 

 ing his discovery of the tusk of an elephant at Clifton Hall, 

 referred to the previous discovery at Kilmaurs, and gives the 

 following particulars : " The only other instance I know of 

 elephants being found in the alluvial cover in Scotland was 

 in the parish of Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, near the Carmel Water, 

 in a property belonging to Lord Eglinton. They were dis- 



1 Hist. Brit. Birds, ii., p. 448. 

 '^ Wern. Mem,, ii., p. 525. 

 * See Wern. Mem., ii,, p. 662, June 7, 1817. 

 VOL. VIII. 2 F 



