Royal Physical Society. 241 



2. The Moor Buzzard or Marsh Harrier {Circus ceruginosus, Yar.). 

 This bird was shot in July 1855 to the south-west of Falkirk, on the estate 

 of Callender, the property of William Forbes, Esq. It shows the dark 

 brown plumage and the light-coloured head and throat, distinctive of the 

 species. It is a very rare hawk in Scotland, but is said to be not uncom- 

 mon in some parts of England, frequenting low, marshy districts of the 

 country. 



3. The Pied Fly-Catcher (Muscicapa luctuosa, Temra.). It was shot 

 in the first week of June 1855, in the garden of Nisbet, about two miles 

 south of Dunse, in company with some of the common spotted fly-catchers 

 {Muscicapa grisola, Linn.). This specimen is a male, distinguished by 

 the white spot across the forehead ; which, in this bird, is not very bril- 

 liant, and the upper parts are dusky-brown, mixed with black, the latter 

 especially on the head and back ; the quills and tail are brownish-black ; 

 it is apparently a young male. The female has no frontal white spot ; 

 the plumage generally is duller, the upper parts being of a light brown 

 colour ; — I exhibit one shot in Yorkshire. The pied fly-catcher is a rare 

 bird, and of very local occurrence in England. I have been able to find 

 only one other instance of its occurrence in Scotland, — recorded in the 

 Naturalist, vol. ii., p. 239, by J. Longmuir jun., Esq., Aberdeen, in which 

 neighbourhood the bird was shot. Like the other fly-catcher, it is a sum- 

 mer visitor ; and Gould, in his " Birds of Europe," says, " In the Bri- 

 tish isles this interesting bird is exceedingly local in the districts it chooses 

 for its periodical visits. Arriving on the return of spring from the more 

 congenial and warmer portions of the old Continent, it takes up its abode, 

 not, as might have been expected, in the southern parts of our island, but 

 in the northern and midland counties, especially Lancashire, Yorkshire, 

 and Derbyshire, finding probably either food, or some other inducement, 

 of which we have no knowledge, that is suited to its wants." We might 

 suppose the specimen of pied fly-catcher, which I exhibit, to be merely 

 an accidental visitor to Scotland ; but I am rather inclined to think it may 

 have been overlooked among our regular summer visitors from its very 

 local distribution, as Mr Stevenson, who shot the bird, in answer to my in- 

 quiries, informs me, he also saw a male bird in the same locality in June 

 this year, but did not succeed in capturing it. He observed it, however, 

 only on one day. 



4. The Nuthatch (Sitta Europcea, Linn.). The nuthatch, a bird of 

 wooded districts, is found in the midland and southern counties of Eng- 

 land, but has been traced by Mr Selby as far north as the banks of the 

 Wear and Tyne. It remains in England all the year ; and, according 

 to Macgillivray, has not hitherto been observed in Scotland. Sir W. 

 Jardine refers to Mr Selby 's tracing it as far as the Tyne, and states 

 that we have no record of its occurrence further north. I have much 

 pleasure, therefore, in adding the nuthatch to the list of birds found in 

 Scotland, this specimen having been killed in the garden at Nisbet, near 



