Miscellanea — Zoological, by James Hardy. 529 



tarns, and remote water-courses, where it can pick up worms 

 undisturbed. This is the character of the situations in which 

 hitherto I have surprised this chance autumnal visitant. 



Water-Kail (Rallus aquaticus). — Thomas Elliott mentions that 

 on January 31, 1879, his retriever dog brought him a Water- 

 Rail from some marshy ground near the Aller burn at Lilburn 

 Tower ; the first he had seen there for many years. Dr. Stuart, 

 of date 6th March, 1879, states that a man called on him on the 

 previous evening, with a fine specimen that he had shot of the 

 Water-Rail at Billie burn, in Chirnside Parish. As regards 

 these birds, Mr J. A. Harvie Brown, of Dunipace House, Larbert, 

 writes of date March 9th, 1879, " Seventeen Water-Rails were 

 shot one day by one gun at Tayside. One Spotted-Crake was 

 seen amongst them. Water-Rails have been unusually abundant 

 here." 



Wild Swans. — Flights of Wild Swans of various species have, 

 this winter, been scattered along the Northumbrian coast, about 

 some of which Mr Gibb has already told his experience. For 

 other particulars I am obliged to Mr Greorge Bolam, but as a 

 minute examination is required for identification, unfortunately 

 the species cannot be precisely determined. By a letter from, a 

 correspondent in that vicinity, of date February 3, I learned that 

 a short time previous a Wild Swan had been shot at Weetwood 

 on the Till ; but from Mr Bolam's observations, it had rather 

 been fired at, than secured. " On the 8th January last," he 

 writes, " when at Weetwood, I saw a Swan in the Till, either a 

 wild one or a tame one escaped : it seemed to have been wounded 

 about the back, as when flying the tail was held a little to one 

 side, instead of being straight, and it had at first some difficulty 

 in rising. Several times I got quite close to it, and had a good 

 opportunity of examining it. In colour it was grey and white, 

 the grey in some parts being of a sandy shade, and the bill was 

 pale yellow, with about an inch of black at the base and about 

 the same quantity at the tip. There was no raised lump on the 

 top of the bill. When rising from the water — I put it up about 

 half-a-dozen times, and each time it flew only a couple of hundred 

 yards or so — it uttered a hoarse croak or quack, though not very 

 loud, and when flying it occasionally whistled. The noise made 

 by its wings was very loud, and quite audible when the bird was 

 flying a hundred yards, or even farther away. On reaching 



