242 Proceedings of the 



Dunse, about the middle of March last, when running over the trunk of 

 an oak tree. 



5. The Crested Titmouse {Par us cristatus, Linn.). This bird was 

 taken several years ago in the neighbourhood of Dumbarton, in a 

 glen popularly known as Lot's Wife's Glen (from the presence of an 

 ancient standing-stone which has apparently suggested the Scriptural 

 name to the locality). It is at once known by its elongated crest of black 

 feathers edged with white. As a British bird it appears to have been ob- 

 served only in Scotland, generally in the large pine forests of the north, 

 as Glenmore, the Pass of Killicrankie, and also in fir plantations not 

 far from Glasgow, as mentioned by Sir William Jardine, 



6. By the kindness of one of our Members for the city, Charles Cowan, 

 Esq., M.P., I exhibit to the Society a beautiful specimen of the Bittern 

 (Ardea stellaris, Linn.), a bird which has of late years become compa- 

 ratively rare, the progress of land improvement and draining having 

 nearly driven it out of the island ; occasionally, however, several specimens 

 are taken at uncertain intervals, and generally in the winter months. The 

 specimen exhibited — an adult male — was shot, during the severe frost, on 

 the 5th of December, on Mr Cowan's property to the south of the Pent- 

 land Hills. I exhibit another fine specimen of the bittern, also an adult 

 male, which was shot at Bankton, near Mid-Calder, on the 23d of Decem- 

 ber. On examination, the stomach contained the elytra of the large 

 water beetle, Dytiscus marginalis. 



7. I take the opportunity of showing the Society two of those strange 

 instances of loss of colour, birds seem occasionally subject to ; the one a 

 common Starling {Sturnus vulgaris), which, instead of its usual dark 

 plumage, has become almost entirely pure white ; it was shot near Bath- 

 gate in June last ; the other, a Thrush (Turdus musicus), killed in the 

 neighbourhood of Glasgow sometime ago, which has apparently been un- 

 dergoing a similar change, but is of a pale yellow, or yellowish-white 

 colour. 



8. And lastly, Mr Carfrae, bird-stufier, has sent for exhibition, a living 

 specimen of a mule, the progeny of a male goldfinch and female bull- 

 finch, which he considers of interest to Bird Fanciers ; and the first, he be- 

 lieves, that has been bred in Edinburgh. For comparison he has sent the 

 parents along with this bird, which was reared by him last summer, and is 

 therefore in its first year's plumage. Of the goldfinch, it shows the red 

 colour of face, the brown back, the yellowish bar on wing, and the white spots 

 on tail feathers ; of the bullfinch, the swollen beak (though it is of a light 

 colour, with the black spot at point like goldfinch), the reddish coloured 

 breast, the bar on wing is like the bullfinch, but of the yellow colour of 

 the goldfinch, glossy black quills of wing, and white upper tail coverts — 

 a curious blending of both its parents. 



