The Zoologist — November, 1868. 14o5 



July 18. Keeper brought in a wild duck, a small specimeD, calling it the "muir 

 duck." All the common people here distinguish between the two sizes, calling the 

 larger the " wild duck" and the smaller the " muir duck." 



August 5. Saw no less than ten ravens in company: they came from different 

 directions, and after circling about for some little time finally made off in a north- 

 easterly direction towards the Ocbil Hills, still circling and ascending as they went. 

 I have frequently seen such gatherings of ravens in Sutherland and in wild parts of 

 the country, where ravens are a commoner bird, but I never observed such in the low 

 grounds ; indeed, it is a rare sight even to see a solitary bird here at all. 



August 18. Mushrooms are here, as I believe they are elsewhere this season, 

 unusually abundant. Our gardener brought in this morning four large clothes-baskets 

 full, principally gathered from one old lee field, where horses have for some time been 

 grazing. This, or from the end of July, is the time in which snipe are most abundant 

 with us: there are now a good many — say between twenty and thirty — in our small 

 marsh. 



August 28. Went down to Grangemouth. Only killed two lapwings, one golden 

 plover, one redshank, one wbimbrel and one dunlin, which last two I lost. The 

 whimbrel when I fired at it, at nearly 100 yards distance, with green cartridge, was 

 feeding in company with six oystercatchers on the " slink," or mud-banks : it was ouly 

 wing-broken, and not having my retrieving terrier with me to-day, it managed to 

 scramble into the water, and got beyond reach. There were few birds on the shore, 

 the bulk of the waders not having yet arrived. The dunlin was a solitary bird, and 

 I only saw a very few others throughout the day. Two small flocks of redshanks were 

 all to be seen of that species, and some scattered flocks of lapwings and golden plovers 

 were feeding in the fields. 



Sunday, September 6. A buzzard came from the sonth-east, circled for some time 

 over a stubble-field behind the house, and then made off in a straight line, flying high 

 towards the north-west, or in the direction of Loch Lomond. 



Sunday, September 13. Just about the same hour to-day, as on last Sunday, 

 viz. about half-past 9 a.m., the buzzard again made its appearance, coming from the 

 same direction, and circling nearly over the same place as last time, but going off this 

 time in a more westerly direction, and still circling and ascending. Whether it was a 

 roughlegged or common buzzard I cannot say, as it was with great difficulty I could 

 fix my glass on it at all. 



September 14. At Grangemouth a friend and myself obtained four bartailed god- 

 wits, one golden plover, one ringed plover, three knots, and dunlins. Tide high; wind 

 pretty fresh and blowing up the Firth from the east. Many birds seen to cross the 

 Firth to the Culross or Fifeshire shore, as I invariably find they do in an east wind, 

 seeking shelter on the lee shore. Consequently birds were not so numerous: the flocks 

 of dunlins were small ; redshanks scarce ; godwits, about thirty seen altogether ; ring 

 plover — never very plentiful on this part of the coast — only in stray individuals. One 

 of the godwits only was an adult bird. A large flight of golden plover came down off 

 the land when the tide had receded about 100 or 150 yards from the shell-bank, and 

 before we were prepared for them ; we thus only got one bird, which was a straggler 

 behind the main body. We saw other large flights sweeping down over the sea- 

 embankment, all along the coast as far as we could see: the flight was over in less 

 than ten minutes, and the whole edge of the water along the "slink" seemed to be 



