NOTES AND QUERIES. 233 
18th.—Saw Common Whitethroat and Spotted Flycatcher to-day. 
27th.—Saw for the first time a Curlew’s nest, with the four young 
birds still in the nest. 
[Absent from home most of June and July.] 
June 30th.—Cuckoo last heard calling in the district. 
August 7th.—Saw a solitary Land-Rail. 
September 3rd.—There is ice on the water this morning. 
26th.—Swallows and House-Martins gone. 
October 1st.—Pochards have returned to the loch. 
4th.—Dipper in fine song. 
6th.—Blackbird sings for about half an hour to-day. Four Red- 
wings flew past, going south-west. 
9th.—Five Swallows to-day—must have been a late nest. 
16th.— Watched a Fox for a while this morning. 
20th.—Flushed eighty Snipe (Common) from the coarse growth 
at the foot of the loch. 
25th.—Tufted Duck on the loch; they now nest every year in 
this district. fea: 
26th.—A few Fieldfares. 
27th.—Large flock of Fieldfares. 
November 23rd.—Saw a lovely cock Bullfinch to-day. 
24th. — Went to the loch this morning, with pleasing result. 
There were twenty-eight Mallard, five Wigeon, one pair of Golden- 
eye, one pair of Teal, thirty-one Pochards, and fifty Coot. From the 
coarse growth at the foot I succeeded in putting up two hundred and 
forty-seven Common Snipe, and do not think I shifted them all. I 
saw fifteen Bramblings among the beeches in the wood. 
December 1st.—A solitary Pied Wagtail to-day. 
7th.—Saw the Marsh-Tit to-day; they are not easy to watch, 
being much more shy than any of the other Tits. 
9th.—Three Long-tailed Tits. 
15th.—Had another try at the Snipe amongst the coarse growth 
at the loch, but only succeeded in putting up one hundred and eighty. 
They are very difficult to move, rising in fives and tens, and thus 
making it easy to count them. Jack-Snipe have also been fairly 
common this winter. The under-keeper told me he saw five Grey 
Geese (species unknown) about the middle of December on the 
loch. 
These notes are sent in the hope that they may prove of interest 
to some south-country readers by way of comparison.—T. THORNTON 
Macxertx (Hall of Caldwell, Renfrewshire). 
Zool. 4th ser. vol. XII.. Jwne, 1908. T 
