The Zoologist — Septemeer, 1867. 893 



bird, owing no doubt to the advanced cultivation and cutting of 

 thistles. Some years ago a pair of these birds had their nest amid the 

 topmost branches of a plane-tree on our avenue, but for the last four 

 or five years I have seen nothing of them, or of any others in this 

 district. Captain A. G. Spiers writes me that they have long 

 since deserted his part of the county also, and that bullfinches 

 are rare. 



Siskin. — The siskin visits us in severe winters, and, like the lesser 

 redpole, hangs about the alder-bushes, and never seems to be affected 

 by severe weather. I saw one — mentioned in the notes on the 

 brambling — on the 15th of April, 1862. I have seen the nest of the 

 siskin in Aberdeenshire, on the banks of the Dee, where they breed 

 every season ; it was placed at the end of a branch of the black fir, 

 some forty feet from the ground, and contained three eggs : we could 

 not procure them by any means whatever : I saw the birds distinctly, 

 as they were very tame. 



Linnet. — Local name, "gray Untie." Common among broom or 

 furze. 



Lesser Redpole. — Local name, " dwarf lintie." Visits us regularly 

 in winter, after the first sharp frost. 



Mountain Linnet. — The twite is shot, Mr. Thompson informs me, 

 in the low ground around Dunmore and on Latham Moss. It is 

 common also in the north of the county, on the back or east slope of 

 Ben Lomond, as well as in other localities. 



Bullfinch. — Tolerably plentiful; breeds regularly in Torwood, 

 Inarter Woods and many other localities. 



Crossbill. — I am informed upon good authority that the crossbill 

 frequented this part of the county in considerable numbers some years 

 ago: I have never seen any here myself. A pair of crossbills, as 

 related by Macgillivray, built their nest and reared their young in the 

 parish of Polmont, and that agreeable and painstaking author devotes 

 a considerable paragraph to their life-history while there. They began 

 building in the beginning of April, and the young birds were unfor- 

 tunately destroyed in the beginning of May. In December, 1838, the 

 late Mr. Stirling, of Craigbarnet, in the parish of Campsil, shot two 

 crossbills, which were the first observed in that quarter. Captain A. 

 G. Spiers has also noticed them in his district. 



Starling.— -Very plentiful now, though I believe scarcely one was to 

 be seen twenty years ago. Every hollow tree that is not otherwise 

 occupied has its pair of starlings. Large flocks or clouds of starlings 



