9654 Birds. 



the poacher about him too — a sort of feathered Clerk of Copnaan- 

 hurst, for — 



' He whoops out his song and he laughs at his jest,' 



living ostensibly on very simple food, but making free every now and 

 then with a young rabbit, or mayhap a leveret." But the rabbit ought 

 certainly to be put down among the good offices of the hermit, for 

 these animals are even more destructive than the mice and voles. 

 A pair of tawny owls bred here this season iu a deserted nest in the 

 midst of a populous rookery, where, however, they were much annoyed 

 by the impertinent curiosity of their sable fellow-citizens. Does not 

 this species almost invariably build in hollow trees ? Yarrell and 

 Morris both describe the Strix aluco as being rarer in Scotland than 

 in Jlngland, but here it is decidedly the commonest of the family, the 

 barn or white owl being rather rare. Does the latter ever hoot? I am 

 inclined to believe not, and am convinced that Sir William Jardine is 

 at least mistaken in saying that, " at night, when not alarmed, hooting 

 is their general cry." A few years ago I spent some months in a house 

 in the South of Germany, which stood close by the village church ; the 

 steeple of the latter was inhabited by numbers of barn owls, and though 

 1 often listened at night to their strange hissing, snoring and screaming, 

 yet I never once heard them hoot. I also once kept a tame specimen 

 for some time; it shrieked horribly, but I never heard it hoot. 



Birds of Passage. — The swallow was first seen here on the 17th of 

 April (one specimen, and more next day). It was recorded in the 

 local newspapers as having appeared at Greenock on the 14th and at 

 Airdrie on the 16th. Now as these places lie to the northward, but are 

 situated in a much lower-lying part of the country, it might lead one 

 to suspect that the summer migrants follow the course of the lower 

 and milder tracts, gradually spreading to the higher and more exposed 

 districts, instead of following a direct northern course. The cuckoo 

 was first heard on the 23rd of April; the willow wren appeared about 

 the same time. Flycatchers had eggs by the end of May. 



Edward R. Alston. 

 Stoclibriggs, Lesmahagow, June 6, 1865. 



Errata. — In my notes on the wild white cattle (Zool. 9514), for " Dunnlarry, Dum- 

 friesshire," read " Drunilanrig." This mistake was caused by a misprint in the ' Penny 

 Magazine.' In ray notes on rooks (Zool. 9572), for " many of them had nests," read 

 " many of them had eggs." — E. R. A. 



