240 Birds. 



The effect produced by the outburst of the latter was overpowering. 

 In general we see and hear the lark ascend the sky, or listen to his 

 notes as they gradually wax louder and louder while we near the place 

 where he is singing, but in the present instance it was entirely dif- 

 ferent. This moment all was silent, as if no living creature breathed 

 save myself, the falcon and his tormentors ; the next, the whole hea- 

 vens resounded with the voices of many happy beings. 



Curious Note of a Bird. — An individual passing through Drum- 

 shoreland, at any time of the year — except during frost and snow — is 

 almost certain of hearing a peculiar note, somewhat resembling the 

 sound produced by an angler unwinding his line. I do not refer to 

 the continuous trill of the grasshopper lark : the note in question is 

 by no means a steady, laboured one, like that warbler's. Nor is it 

 emitted while the bird is stationary or concealed ; but while it takes 

 an undulating flight, as in the act of alighting on the top of a tall bush 

 or tree. Surely it must proceed from a linnet, but of this I cannot be 

 certain ; neither know I to which species of this family it must be at- 

 tributed. It would give me great pleasure to find the note adverted 

 to by any one who has observed it. 



The Wheatear. — In this wooded part of the Lothians the wheatear 

 [Saxicola (Enanihe) is a rare visitant : indeed I have only seen it 

 once within ten miles of us. In the early part of the summer of 1841 

 a nest of this bird was found here, in a situation somewhat singular, 

 namely, in the very heart of a village. It was pointed out to me by 

 Mr. Archibald Walker, Colinton, and was placed in a hole in a dila- 

 pidated wall of an old ruin, once the parish church of East Calder. 

 The nest was bulky, but extremely shallow. In it lay seven eggs : 

 in colour, for a time, I could scarcely distinguish them from those of 

 the hedge-warbler ; but in form they were more pointed, and a little 

 longer than any of the accentor's I have yet seen. On a careful com- 

 parison, I found that the egg of the wheatear had about a shade of 

 green more than that of the hedge-chanter. By this characteristic, 

 and by the elongated shape of the former, the eggs of these two birds 

 may be easily distinguished. 



The Nightingale. — In almost every work on British Ornithology, 

 it is asserted that the nightingale is never heard north of the Tweed. 

 Individual instances of its occurrence in Scotland, however, are au- 

 thenticated. Allow me to mention to your readers a fact which a few 



