Ornithological Notices. By William Evans. 543 



game, and is decidedly too dry to suit the habits of the Common 

 Snipe. On subsequently dissecting the specimen, which was very 

 fat and weighed 8 ozs. 2 drs. Mr Evans found it to be a male, ap- 

 parently a young bird. The stomach contained only a small 

 quantity of decayed vegetable matter, one or two small seeds, and 

 a single whitish worm about half an inch long. 



Comparatively few Scotch specimens of this Snipe exist in col- 

 lections, and consequently the bird has usually been accounted 

 much rarer than in all probability it really is ; and it is to be 

 hoped that in future our sportsmen, who have the largest oppor- 

 tunities in a matter of this kind, will keep a sharp look-out for it 

 and have any examples that may come under their notice duly 

 preserved and recorded. The most likely time to find them is 

 during the autumn migration — September and October. On the 

 return journey in spring they are apparently much rarer, two 

 obtained at Clydebank, near Glasgow, on 16th May 1 885, being as 

 far as is known the only specimens that have been killed in Scot- 

 land at that season of the year (vide Proceedings Eoyal Physical 

 Society, vol. ix. p. 1 84). 



In addition to its greater bulk, relatively shorter bill and legs, 

 and darker underparts, the Great Snipe may at once be distin- 

 guished from the common species by the presence of sixteen tail- 

 feathers, of which the two or three outermost on each side are 

 white or nearly so, whereas in the Common Snipe the number of 

 tail-feathers is fourteen all more or less richly tinted with 

 chestnut. 



Great Crested-Grebe. 



Although this grebe cannot properly be considered a rare bird 

 in the district, the numbers observable at any season of the year 

 is very limited indeed. In one or other of the many secluded 

 spots along the shores of the Eirth of Forth, I find it however 

 every year between autumn and spring, usually only a single bird 

 feeding close in shore. On Dec. 1885, 1 watched one so engaged 

 in the bay immediately to the west of Granton quarry. Birds 

 in more or less of the nuptial dress, are occasionally obtained on 

 our coasts, and a few individuals may be seen on certain of- our 

 lochs throughout the summer, under circumstances which at least 

 suggest the probability that they resort to them for the purpose 

 of rearing their young. 



