BepoH of Meetings for 1881. By Jas. Hardy. 429 



coining this season. This is one of their nesting places. The 

 pied wagtail exhibited a more sober gait, having been domiciled 

 for some time. The willow-warbler, {Sylvia trochilus) was pre- 

 valent ; but I listened in vain for the note of the sihilatrix. I 

 observed a wood-pigeon cropping the newly expanded leaves of 

 the beech, of which it is accustomed to make a hearty meal, 

 as I have remarked once before. Grey linnets I was told are rather 

 scarce in this quarter. A few breed in an old quarry, where 

 some furze bushes grow. Blackbirds are still plentiful ; but the 

 winters have not spared the thrushes here more than elsewhere. 

 Sand-martins were skimming the waters of the rivulet above 

 Biel, and two pairs of chimney swallows frequented a detached 

 dove-cot. The grass was so backward this spring that landrails, 

 a circumstance never witnessed before, were seen running ex- 

 posed in the open fields at Biel, and also in the ditches by road 

 sides. Woodcocks were late in departing. A case had been 

 heard of woodcocks remaining to breed at Presmennan, and an- 

 other instance at Thurston High Wood. The Biel gamekeeper 

 reported that ring-ouzels pass the summer on Deuchrie Dod above 

 Presmennan. He had frequently on the moor edges watched 

 young cuckoos while being fed by titlings {Anthus pratensis). He 

 was positive that when a boy he had seen a cuckoo's e^g in a 

 wren's nest, which was placed against a bank ; one large egg 

 among ever so many small ones. Twenty years ago, he said, 

 great spotted woodpeckers {Picus major) might now and then be 

 visible at Newbyth. At first they were mistaken for jays. The 

 jay is still to be met with at Salton Hall. One would scarcely 

 expect vipers in woods so environed with cultivation, but one 

 about a foot long had been killed on the foot-bridge above Biel. 

 They are rather frequent on the moors above Presmennan. 



There are some fine well-stocked trout pools in the burn. The 

 trout are of fair size and good quality. A sea-trout, 4lbs. weight, 

 had been taken recently, and as many as 15 dozen trout had been 

 caught on one occasion. 



There is lying at the keeper's cottage at Belton an old sun- 

 dial, brought from Old Belton farm-place, with the date 1719 and 

 the initial letters W.L. and G.W. There appears to have been 

 an old garden near the side of the wood here : {Doromcum par- 

 dalianches, purple comfrey, and Herb Gerard occupying large 

 spaces. Barharea vulgaris which also grows as far up as Biel 

 Grange (accompanied there with Reseda lutea), was also noticed ; 



