A SCOTTISH METHOD OF BIRD-CATCHING 15 



the feathers of which lime was still adhering, showing that it 

 was freshly caught. I was informed that three cock birds of 

 this race had been captured that week, the price obtained in 

 this case being 3s. 6d. each for the cocks, is. 6d. for the hens. 

 They usually got a few big Bullfinches in October feeding 

 on nettle seed. They also caught a few Chaffinches for the 

 Edinburgh market, but only retained the cock birds, for 

 which they obtained one shilling. 



A comparison of the methods employed on this occasion 

 with those of catchers in the south of England may be of 

 interest. The latter employ fewer call-birds, and do not 

 prepare the elaborate thicket of limed branches which prove 

 so successful when manipulated by their northern confreres. 

 The Englishmen employed two or three willow-wands 

 besmeared with lime, which were placed so as to project 

 from a hedge ; thus there were many sites where a bird 

 could perch without being snared. On the other hand, the 

 Scots utilised a method whereby every available perching 

 site was an almost certain trap. 



Earliest Breeding Dates of Wigeon, Slioveler, and other 

 Ducks in Scotland. — In the valuable papers by Misses Baxter 

 and Rintoul on the Wigeon and Shoveler as Scottish breeding 

 species {Scot. Nat., 1920, pp. 33 and 155), a few early records 

 appear to have been overlooked. 



With regard to the Wigeon, no definite record of breeding in 

 Caithness is mentioned prior to 1865, but there are two eggs in the 

 British Museum from the Salvin-Godman collection, which are 

 marked "Caithness, 1857." This seems to be the first record for 

 the county. 



In the article on the Shoveler, there is no record for N. Argyll 

 beyond the statement in the V. Fauna of Argyll and the Inner 

 Hebrides (1892). Yet an egg in the British Museum was taken by 

 E. Milner (afterwards Sir Edward Milner) at Loch Awe in 1866. 

 This is apparently the only definite record for the area. 



As full dates of clutches in the British Museum are inaccessible 

 except to workers in the Museum, owing to the fact that the year 

 was suppressed in the official Catalogue, it may be of some interest 

 to add the following details : — 



