546 Notes on the Birds of Stobo. By John Thomson. 



A number of Jackdaws were persecuting them unmercifully. Twice we 

 saw one of the Stock Doves disappear among the rabbit -burrows on the 

 steep face of the hill, and have no doubt that they were breeding there. 

 We climbed up as far as possible, and observed one of them issue from the 

 place where we saw it disappear. I picked up a feather which I sent to 

 Mr Evans of Edinburgh, and he pronounced it to be undoubtedly one of the 

 wing-coverts of the Stock Dove. Mr McDonald will so far as he is able, 

 see that the strangers remain unmolested. A specimen — the first obtained 

 in East Lothian — was exhibited by Mr Evans, at a meeting of the Royal 

 Physical Society on 17th March 1886. It was shot near Longniddry, in 

 January 1886, while feeding in company with a number of Ring Doves. 

 A second specimen was netted, along with Ring Doves, in the same locality 

 on 5th March 1886. 



Since writing the above, I have paid occasional visits to the locality, and 

 find that they are still frequenting the Law ; and Mr McDonald has in- 

 formed me that he has found the nest, containing two young birds. 



I have lately had a conversation with Mr Carr, Thurston, anent the 

 appearance of the Stock Dove. He informed me that in June 1882, he saw 

 Mr Andrew Davidson, (late sheplierd of Yadlaw), shoot a dove in Woodhall 

 Glen ; and from the minute and accurate description which he gave me of 

 the bird, I have no doubt that it was a Stock Dove. Mr Carr has seen the 

 species every year since then ; and when going past Stottencleuch in April 

 last, he observed the same bird issue from a rabbit -burrow. On the 15th 

 of May 1887, in Dunglass Glen, I saw the Stock Dove, and was informed 

 by Mr Hadden, nnder gamekeeper, that he shot a pair off a tree there last 

 Spring. 



Mr Gregg, gamekeeper, Newbyth, showed me a stuffed specimen of the 

 Stock Dove, which he had received, in the flesh, from Mr Thomas Inglis, 

 gamekeeper, Balgone, in the Spring of this year. 



Notes on the Birds of Stobo and Neighbourhood. By John 

 Thomson, Stobo Mill, Peeblesshire. 



Not a few districts of Scotland are so rich in birds that one might there 

 enumerate a very large proportion of those appertaining to the country. 

 To possess such a wealth of species the district must, of course, have very 

 varied attractions, and it may be said, have some degree of immunity from 

 marauding inroads to its secluded retreats. While the parish of Stobo 

 cannot lay claim to the special distinction at first alluded to, being deprived, 

 owing to its distance inland, of the visits of mostly all those which merit the 

 appellation of " sea-birds," and of others affecting low-lying country, it 

 yet, by its finely diversified physical features, by its much sheltered 

 situation, and its quiet seclusion, is very attractive to many members of 

 the feathered tribes. The following is a list -of species that have oeenrred 



