94 
TJie Scottish JSI aturahst. 
good deal of light frost but not much hard frost. TJiis may rather surprise 
some of our friends in the South, who look upon Scotland in winter as a sort 
of small Arctic region. I wonder if London or Loch Lomond have been the 
most like the Arctic regions this season. — ^Jas. Lumsden, Arden, Loch 
Lomond. 
Hybrid Pheasant and Capercaillie.— Mr. James Brown, High 
Street, Forres, has, as a taxidermist, for several years been the medium of 
making known many additions to the fauna of the Province of Moray. This 
season there M'ere sent to him two handsome, robust birds, giving no uncertain 
sound as to their parentage — hybrids, between the Capercaillie and the 
Pheasant. Mr. 13. has compared them with the description given on pp. 38 
and 59 of our last number, and finds them agreeing with Mr. Lumsden's bird. 
He is under the impression that the two specimens he got were part of a brood 
of hybrids, and that there are still some members of it among the fent- 
naturm. — G. Gordon, Elgin. 
Land-Rail in Mull and Jura in Winter.— On the 20th Decembei 
1890, in shooting the Home Covers, the snow knee-deep, I shot two Land- 
rails {Crex pratensu) right and left. Mr. Evans, the tenant of Jura Forest, 
informs me that he shot a bird of this species at Jura, on the 3rd of the same 
month. — Maclaine of Lochbuie. 
Sabine's Snipe in Clackmannanshire.— A fine specimen of this 
melanistic form of the Common Snipe [Gallinago coele-sfis), was shot on 13th 
December last on Grassmainston Moor close to a sheet of water named 
Gartmoor Dam, by R. Gate, gamekeeper to Lord Balfour of Burleigh. His 
Lordship has presented it to the British Museum. — J. J. Dalgleish, Edin- 
burgh. 
Incident in the Life of a Dunlin.— On January 6th, I shot a Dun- 
lin ( TriiKja, variahUl'^ ) with a cockle, nearly the size of a walnut, tightly 
clamped on to the end of its long, slender bill. It puzzled me at first to 
know what it was, for it got up from my feet and flew heavily away with what 
appeared to be a ball of something hanging to one of its feet. I believe this 
is not an uncommon occurrence, but how it happens is not quite clear, for the 
bill of a Dunlin is not adapted for extracting a cockle, whether dead or alive, 
from its shell. 
[The bird had, no doubt, unwittingly inserted its bill into the open valves 
of the buried mollusc when probing the shore in search of food. — Ed.] 
Buffon's Skua in Aberdeenshire. — A fine specimen of Stercor- 
arius 2^cbrasiticus was killed at Blackpool, Millbrex, Fyvie, on the 2nd Oct., 
1890. — George Sim, Gourdas, Fyvie. 
Eared Grebe on the Pirth of Forth.— On December 31st last, 
I shot a specimen of the 'Eared Grebe ( Podicipes nigricollis ) m Aberlady 
Bay, which proved to be a male. When first noticed, it was diving close to 
some rocks at nearly high water. The gizzard contained a brown fibrous 
