Notes on Birds, by Mr George Muirhead. 179 



quite close to the bush in which it sat, and uttered its peculiar 

 monotonous trill, resembling the continuous chirping noise 

 made by large grasshoppers, which I have heard during summer 

 nights in the Orleannais. Although I several times searched for 

 the nest of the bird, I never succeeded in discovering it. 



Raven ( Corvus corax). — I was informed lately by Mr Leitch, 

 Fairneyside, that on the 4th December last, his brother, Mr 

 Robert Leitch, saw a pair of Ravens on the sea banks near 

 Burnmouth. 



Hoopoe ( JJpupa JEpops). — A Hoopoe was obtained near Inner- 

 wick, in October last. It had disabled itself by flying against 

 the telegraph wires on the North-British Railway, and was 

 caught by one of the railway officials. 



Kingfisher (Alcedo ispida). — Several friends who take some 

 interest in birds, and who frequent the Whiteadder during spring 

 and summer for trout fishing, have remarked to me, that they 

 have not, of late, seen so many Kingfishers on the water, as they 

 used to do. The severe and long-continued frost of the winter 

 of 1875-76 may perhaps have had the effect of diminishing the 

 numbers of this brightly coloured bird, on our beautiful and 

 famous trouting stream. During that terrible winter, for several 

 weeks, the Tweed and the Whiteadder were here almost com- 

 pletely frozen over, and all the rivulets which flow into them, 

 were covered with ice and snow. Kingfishers, therefore, would 

 be able to obtain little food, and, probably, many of them would 

 die from hunger. 



The Water-ouzel, the Kingfisher, and the graceful little 

 Common Sandpiper, lend to the Whiteadder additional charms 

 on pleasant spring and summer days, when the trout fisher is by 

 the water's side. The Water-ouzel should be the greatest 

 favourite, for it is evidently always in a happy mood, cheering 

 the angler with its lively motions. 



Ring Dove (Columba palumbus). — Comparatively few Wood- 

 pigeons have been seen in this locality during the past winter. 

 The vast flocks which appeared here several years ago, have 

 been represented by only a few stragglers. I have shot not 

 above a dozen, during the whole of the past winter, whereas, in 

 the autumn and winter of 1875, I sometime shot, in the evening 

 fligi c, a dozen Pigeons in the course of an hour. 



Water-rail {Rattus aquaticus). — A Water-rail was shot at 



W 



