Nores ON THE Birps oF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 47 
A specimen of ‘‘ Parus palustris obtained at Jardine 
Hall ’’ is thus recorded in A Catalogue of the Birds contained 
in the Collection of Sir William Jardine: ‘‘ 1874, p. 78. 
3121, a.’’ In view of the comparatively recent distinction 
between the Marsh and the Willow-Tit it would have been 
most interesting to have examined this specimen had it 
passed, with the ‘‘ Jardine Collection ’’ in 1876, to the Edin- 
burgh Museum. Dr. W. Eagle Clarke, however, informs me 
that, provokingly enough, this collection, now in the Royal 
Scottish Museum, does not appear to have contained speci- 
mens of any of the Titmice. The first specimen that I per- 
sonally examined in the flesh was shot near Clonrae (Tynron) 
on 20th July, 1911: it was sent to Mr H. F. Witherby who 
identified it as a juvenile British Willow-Titmouse. One was 
shot in August, 1912, and another in January, 1913, at 
Grennan (Penpont). On 14th September, 1919, I watched a 
family party of Willow-Tits, busy on the herbaceous borders 
at Capenoch, for over an hour. In 1920 a pair nested in a 
rotten thorn tree, growing close to Scaur Water, near Cape- 
noch gardens. It was at once noticed that the birds had 
excavated their nesting hole for the diminutive chips were 
lying at the foot of the tree. As soon as the young were 
flown I cut down the portion of the tree, in which the nest 
was, and sent it to the Royal Scottish Museum. 
It may be noted here that on 25th January, 1920, Mr T. 
G. Laidlaw identified a Marsh Titmouse near Duns Castle in 
Berwickshire. 
The WREN (p. 43). When cutting some shrubs at Cape- 
noch on 2nd June, 1921, the foresters inadvertently lopped off 
a branch of rhododendron on which was a wren’s nest full of 
young birds. The men moved the nest to another bush some 
fifteen yards away and, much to their gratification, the old 
birds were not alarmed by their change of residence but con- 
tinued to feed the nestlings which they successfully reared. 
Two abnormally coloured Wrens were repeatedly seen, 
throughout the autumn and winter of 1921, in Kirkmahoe 
80 Scottish Naturalist, 1921, p. 86. 
