112 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 
also very poor there, some coveys certainly having migrated 
elsewhere. Mr Gordon says that he is sure that “the Stoat, 
which increased greatly during the war, does great damage 
to game, killing out the entire covey when met with and 
eating incubated eggs. Here the Herring and Lesser 
Black-backed Gulls do much more damage than Greater 
Black-backed, and are far more numerous.” He adds 
that Hooded and Carrion Crows and Rooks are bad egg 
thieves, but thinks the damage done by Hawks is slight 
except in the case of the Peregrine. 
SUMMER AND NESTING. 
For a good many years we have given full and detailed 
records of the nesting dates of our common breeding birds, 
therefore we think it is unnecessary to do more in future 
than give a general survey of the nesting season with details 
of any abnormal occurrences, 
Although the summer of 1920 was cold and wet, the 
inclemency of the weather does not seem to have had 
much influence on the nesting of our ordinary breeding 
birds. The records sent us show that the earlier breeding 
species had nests and eggs in March, and that the nesting 
and hatching followed a fairly normal course. We have 
notes of the probable nesting of Magpies in Lauderdale, 
where too Hawfinches were reported. A nest in a hedge 
at Cullen (Banffshire), apparently an ordinary nest of the 
Song-thrush, contained four eggs which seemed distinctly 
Blackbird’s eggs, dark bluish green, heavily mottled, but 
with a few dark round spots such as occur on a Thrush’s 
egg. When the eggs hatched, the young were typical 
Thrushes. Great Spotted Woodpeckers have nested at 
Thirlestane Castle, where a nest with young was found 
on 25th June, and at The Hirsel (Berwickshire), where 
Lord Home reports three if not four pairs. These birds 
were seen and heard in the forest of Rothiemurchus in 
July (2. xiv. 117), from which it would seem possible 
that they also nested there. A Cuckoo’s egg was found 
in a Song-thrush’s nest am@ampine “thee; about sixmicer 
from the ground, at Scone Palace, Perthshire, an unusual 
