Ornithological Notes. 363 



paws, and proceeded to devour with apparently the greatest 

 relish. Not contented with this, it was in the act of taking 

 another from the nest, when the enjoyments of the feast were 

 broken in upon by the hitherto unseen observer of the 

 depredation. 



VI. Albino Variety of the Lepus timidus. Exhibited by John 



Alex. Smith, M.D. 



This white variety of the common hare was shot near 

 Lauder about the end of January. The animal was large, 

 and well fed. The eyes were carefully examined, and were 

 pink or red, showing the usual deficiency of the dark pig- 

 ment of the eye, which occurs in albinos. The ears, which 

 were longer than the head, had no black colour on their 

 tips ; and the upper part of the tail, instead of being black, 

 as in the common and Alpine hares, was, like all the rest of 

 the animal, pure white. 



VII. Ornithological Notes. By John Alexander Smith, M.D. 



(Specimens exhibited.) 



(1.) Turdus Merula (Penn.) Blackbird. — A pied variety 

 of this bird was exhibited, the head and upper parts of the 

 body being variegated with numerous pure white feathers. 

 It was shot on the 3d of February near Dundas Castle, Lin- 

 lithgowshire. 



(2.) Loxia curvirostra (Penn.) Common Crossbill. — A 

 male and female, in fine plumage, were exhibited, killed on 

 the 13th January, near Aberdeen. 



(3.) Picus Major (Penn.) Pied or Great Spotted Wood- 

 pecker. — Adult male specimen, showing the crimson red 

 occiput, was found in May 1861 lying dead in the shrubbery 

 of T. Durham Weir of Boghead, Esq., near Bathgate, Linlith- 

 gowshire. The bird seems not to have been before observed 

 in this county ; it is not included in the list of the birds of 

 Linlithgowshire, by the Eev. John Duns, recently published 

 in the Proceedings of the Eoyal Society. A young male, 

 shot on the 4th of last December, at Kirkwall, Orkney, 

 was also exhibited. It is one of our rare local residents, 

 and is an accidental visitor or straggler in Orkney. An- 

 other specimen was killed in Orkney in the month of August 



