84 Mr. Hardy's Botanical and Ornithological Notices. 



II.— OKNITHOLGGICAL. 

 1. Disappearance of Hirundo Urhica. — I formerly noticed 

 the disappearance of the Martins from the rocks on the sea- 

 coast here, which they had frequented for ages (one of the 

 cliffs being named from them), owing, I believe, to a colony 

 of Jackdaws having taken possession of the rocks on all sides of 

 them. For the two years bygone their visits to their old 

 haunts have entirely ceased. Amidst such deliberate pilferers 

 of eggs, the poor Martins had little chance to thrive. Had 

 the raven and the peregrine-falcon remained to build here as 

 they did in times past, they might have kept their domain 

 private from intruders, while their lively summer visitants 

 might have thriven disregarded by them in their helplessness ; 

 but the Jackdaw is an ignoble rogue who permits of no re- 

 tainers, even although gentle and playful as butterflies. 



2. Larus minutus, or Pigmy Gull. — Mr. Andrew Wilson 

 writes me, that a specimen of this rare occasional winter 

 visitant was procured at Coldingham, during the stormy 

 weather in the end of December, 1869, and is now in his 

 collection. This gull is only a castaway on the British 

 coast ; it's native country being the east of Europe and the 

 north-east of Asia, having been first described by Pallas. In 

 winter it frequents the shores of the Caspian sea and the 

 banks of its affluents ; migrating in summer up the Volga, 

 northwards (Gmelin), where it reaches the tributaries of the 

 Baltic. In Britain a solitary instance now and then occurs. 

 The first Scottish specimen is that presented by Dr. Neill to 

 the Edinburgh Museum, "shot in autumn, 1824, on the 

 shore of the Solway Firth." (Fleming Brit. Animals). In 

 the 1st Vol. of the Club's Transactions, p. 232, Mr. Embleton 

 records and describes a young example, " shot on the beach 

 at Embleton, during severe weather in the beginning of 

 1838 ; " and Mr. Selby notices (p. 262) a specimen killed at 

 Holy Island, October, 1840. In the " Mag. of Zoology and 

 Botany," I. p. 491, Mr. Albany Hancock notifies a bird in 

 the first plumage, killed at the mouth of the river Tyne, 

 September 1836. In April, 1847, one of Mr. C. St. John's 

 s ms killed one near Loch Spynie, the only instance of its 

 being seen in the district of Moray. (Nat. Hist, and Sport 

 in Moray, p. 112). These appear to be the examples of more 

 immediate interest to us. In England it has occurred at 

 Yarmouth and elswhere (Jenyns) ; in the Thames (Montagu) ; 

 and in Cornwall, " two or three specimens in the plumage of 

 the first year." (Couch). 



