166 Ornithological Notes, by George Bolam. 



incubated, placed a foot and a half down a rabbit hole ; after 

 watching the bird for some time, and satisfjdng myself that I 

 had not mistaken the species (for escaped tame pigeons breed in 

 the banks in many places in the neighbourhood), I removed the 

 eggs, and they now form an interesting addition to my collection. 

 On re- visiting the place, about six weeks later, namely, on the 

 3rd June, in company with Mr Muirhead of Paxton, we were not 

 a little astonished to find that the nest contained two fine young 

 ones, almost fully feathered, and we again saw the old bird leave 

 the hole. — At Kyloe, in Northumberland, on 16th May of the 

 same year, I took another nest of two eggs, and about the 

 middle of April of the present year a third, on the banks of the 

 Whitadder, near Edrington, also with full complement of eggs. 

 The former of these nests was made in a rabbit hole, the latter 

 in a slight natural depression of the ground, at the bottom of a 

 whin bush and sheltered by long grass, which growing from 

 both above and below, completely concealed it from view. This 

 interesting species is fast becoming a rather common resident in 

 the district, and may now be met with throughout the year, 

 though most plentifully during summer. Its rapid increase may 

 probably be traced as in the case of its congener, the Wood- 

 pigeon, to the ruthless destruction of all so-called ''vermin" by 

 the "game-preserver." 



Sabine's Snipe {Scolopax Sabini). — While walking over a 

 marshy field upon Goswick Farm, in the beginning of February, 

 1880, 1 flushed a specimen of this variety; it was wholly of a 

 deep brown colour, and seemed to be a good deal darker than a 

 Woodcock ; whilst flying past me, at a distance of perhaps 

 eighty yards, it several times uttered the well-known " scrapi, 

 scrapi," of the Common Snipe. In a game shop in Berwick, 

 during November of last year, there was exposed for sale, 

 amongst others, a Snipe of an unusually dark hue, being in fact 

 almost midway in colour between Sabine's and the common 

 variety ; the whole of the under parts, including the thighs, 

 being blotched over with brown, and the pale margins to the 

 feathers on the upper parts of the body being altogether want- 

 ing — unfortunately it had been too long dead, and had received 

 too much injury, to permit of its being preserved. 



Dunlin {Tringa variabilis) breeds sparingly on the Cheviot 

 Hills, above Langleyford, seldom more than a single pair 



