54 The Ornithology of the Dunbar Coast, by Robt. Gray. 



with the sea, where they find abundance of food. The 

 Goosander is much less common, but Dunbar shared recently 

 in the unusual abundance of the species. 



Among the Grebes which frequent the shore may be men- 

 tioned the Great Crested, the Bed-necked, Sclavonian, Eared, 

 and Little Grebe, or Dabchick. It was from this district 

 that I, many years ago, recorded the regular occurrence of 

 the Eared Grebe in autumn and winter. All the species I 

 have mentioned are found feeding on comparatively calm 

 days just off shore, chiefly on the rocky parts, from which I 

 infer that their principal food must be obtained in rocky 

 situations. The Great Northern Diver, Black-throated, and 

 Bed-throated Divers, have all been obtained in the end of 

 autumn, at which season they have assumed their winter 

 dress ; but in spring they are frequently taken in full breed- 

 ing plumage — these examples being, doubtless, birds which, 

 having been much further south in their annual migration, 

 were then on their way north — preceded, of course, by those 

 which had spent the winter in this neighbourhood. 



The Common Guillemot is, keeping in view the nearness 

 of this district to the Bass Rock, and the breeding ledges at 

 St. Abb's Head, very abundant, especially in autumn, when 

 the birds have left the rock attended by their young ones. 

 The ringed variety (U. lachrymans) is, curiously enough, 

 very rare in this quarter. The Black Guillemot, formerly 

 well-known in the neighbourhood of the Isle of May, is 

 rather scarce, and is only met with out at sea. The Little 

 Auk may be said to be a regular winter visitant in consider- 

 able numbers, and is frequently killed when flying along the 

 rocky parts of the coast. In severe storms many Little Auks 

 are driven shorewards, and sometimes inland to considerable 

 distances — on which occasions they become either enfeebled 

 through hunger or crippled by the effects of the storm. 



The Baffin and Bazor-bill are both met with in moderate 

 numbers. The Puffin, however, is much scarcer of late 

 years, and throughout the east of Scotland generally, I should 

 say there is only one Puffin for twenty on the west coast. 

 It is a migratory bird, and all those bred on the Bass dis- 

 appear early in September, by which time, however, or very 

 soon afterwards, they are replaced by other flocks from 

 Arctic waters. Thus the Puffin cannot be said to be ever 

 absent from the Dunbar coast. The Common Cormorant 



