514 Miscellanea, by Mr James Hardy. 



situation. There was a general scream of alarm when I approach- 

 ed their seclusion. A shepherd boy who passing every day, was 

 accustomed to the noise, calmly remarked, " Oh ! its just the way 

 o' them." In that neighbourhood they begin to collect the young 

 in the tall hedges, about June 4th ; and afterwards feed together 

 in bands, which alight in heaps and spread outwards like a fan ; 

 this system of flight and dispersion, being constantly repeated. 

 On Sept. 8th, 1 observed a female Starling leisurely walking 

 along a wall top, and picking up the numerous insects that had 

 alighted on it, previous to a shower coming on. Cats kill Star- 

 lings but do not eat them. 



Jay, ( Garrulus glandarius). — The Statistical Account of Oock- 

 burnspath and Oldcambus, when the Jay built in Penmanshiel 

 Wood, is dated 1834. Considerably before that period, under 

 the direction of gamekeepers, the number of '' Jay Pyots'' had 

 become diminished, and the persecution lasted, till all were either 

 trapped or shot. Occasionally, when a boy, I have seen living 

 birds there ; but more frequently they were suspended like felons 

 to a cross-stick, with a nail through their heads. There have not 

 been any there for well nigh thirty years. I was told, a few 

 years since, that there are still a few Jays in the Whitfield and 

 Press Woods. 



Great Spotted Woodpecker, (Picus major). — One was seen 

 in summer, on the coast near Dunglass. It was clinging to a 

 palmg. 



King-eisher, (Alcedo ispido). — One was shot in 1875 on the 

 Lill burn ; two were shot during winter 1874-5, at Wooler Bridge. 



Sand Martin, (Sirundo riparia). — Mr S. H. Smith informed 

 me, that he, on one occasion, took notice of a great commotion 

 among some Sand Martins near Norham ; and found it was 

 owing to the presence of a weasel, which was perambulating the 

 cbff, and examining nest after nest. 



Wood Pigeon, (Columba palumbus). — When at Melrose on 

 May 12th, Mr John Freer mentioned that on the previous day he 

 had shot six Wood Pigeons, as they were returning from some 

 distance to the woods, and he found in their crops crumpled 

 leaves and a brown substance. These proved to be beech leaves 

 and their scaly covering. They had been cropped as the buds 

 were expanding. On Heddin braes or Ilderton Hill, a most 

 retired spot, I found Cushats nesting not 4 feet from the ground 

 in low thorns, also in alders, and in juniper bushes, and even in 

 thickets of wild roses. The Chaffinch had also built its nest in 

 the lowly junipers. On June 5th, when proceeding to feed, they 

 flew mostly in threes. On the 9th of July, at Penmanshiel, a 

 band of Wood Pigeons set upon a thriving field of thinned 

 Swedish Turnips, and stripped the leaves off in three days. 



