406 Record of Migration, <&g., of Birds, by James Hardy. 



Lime Works, and as I neared the Eailway Cottages connected 

 with. Scremerston Station, my attention was attracted by a bird, 

 which was to all appearance one of the Finches, but of unusual 

 size. It seemed to be entirely out of its element, and at the 

 mercy of the wind and spray. From researches I have since 

 made, I believe it to have been a Hawfinch." — Thomas Darling. 

 — There has been an unusual abujidance of the Hawfinch or 

 Grosbeak this winter, noticed all over England ; frequenting 

 orchards and gardens into which they had been driven in search 

 of food. 



Skua Gulls {Lestris sp.) — Mr Darling continues his statement 

 thus : " Before I had gone a mile further along the banks, two 

 Skua Gulls sailed gracefully past me, the first I have seen this 

 autumn. I saw several last." Were these Pomarine Skuas ? 



Wood-Pigeon {Columha Palumbus). — Penmanshiel, Oct. 30th, 

 a very large migratory band, flying at a great height, passed from 

 the north to the south, during the day. Previously it had been 

 stormy weather in the north, the Highland hills being white with 

 snow. Oct. 8th, as an instance of late breeding, Mr Knight in 

 Floors Castle gardens, found a young pigeon apparently of a 

 week old, which had fallen from the nest to the ground^. Wood- 

 pigeons felt the winter of 1880-1 severely. I noticed three or four 

 dead birds. They had nothing to depend on but the turnips, 

 where not fully covered by the snow. At Chirnside, Dr Stuart 

 writes, "Wood-pigeons were observed to fall off the branches at 

 Stuartslaw, frozen or starved to death ; and at Leetside the men 

 caught them at the sheep boxes .unable to fly away. They were 

 feathers and bones, poor things. Many dead birds have been 

 picked up." During the summer, a white Wood-pigeon was 

 several times seen among other Cushats in the Pease dean. Mr 

 Eobert Waite, Blinkbonny, Dunse, got, in Jan., 1881, a white 

 Wood-pigeon spotted with gray, which had been captured alive 

 in a turnip shed. 



Golden Plover {Charadrius pluviaUs).—'^OY. 2nd. During 

 a hard frost great numbers were associated with Lapwings on the 

 turnip fields in East Lothian. Dec. 28th. Thirty Plovers on lea 

 near Oldcambus, mixed with Lapwings. They were scarce in 

 winter 1880-81. 



Shoet- EARED OwL ( Ottts IracJiyotus). — Nov. 2nd, sprung a 

 Short-eared Owl on the sea-rocks near Boulmer. — T.H.G. — In 

 Nov., 1880, Mr Eobert Waite had two "Marsh Owls" from 

 Longformacus. 



