34 
Very handsome birds are bred on some of the Ayrshire moors. 
The disease to which this fine bird, for the last twenty years, has 
been more or less subject, appears to be intimately associated with 
the destruction of birds of prey frequenting its haunts. (See 
“ Proceedings of Nat. Hist. Soc. of Glasgow,” page 226). 
The Common Partridge (Perdix cinerea). 
Also very common, and well distributed, extending in Wigtown¬ 
shire to the verge of the cliffs at the Mull of Galloway Lighthouse, 
where we saw a covey last year in a small patch of oats in the 
enclosed piece of cultivated ground belonging to the Commissioners. 
In ordinary seasons this bird is useful to farmers as a destroyer 
of aphides and other larger insects, which adhere to and injure the 
leaves of the turnip. Mr Anderson has seen a covey leisurely tra¬ 
versing the turnip drills, and picking the insects from the under 
side of the leaves; and we are gratified to learn from Mr J. A. 
Harvie Brown—an excellent observer, resident in Stirlingshire-— 
that 1 he has made similar observations on this habit of the part¬ 
ridge, during the present summer. “The Green Fly” writes Mr 
Brown, “ is abundant on turnip leaves in some places this year, 
and the partridges seem to feed largely on it. I observed a covey, 
the other day, feeding along the edge of a turnip field, underneath 
the leaves; and Mr Drummond observed the same thing this year. 
I don’t remember having actually seen them doing this before.” 
A beautiful albino of this species was shot in Wigtownshire some 
years ago, by H. Stewart, Esq., of Tondergliie. 
The Common Quail (Coturnix vulgaris). 
Well known both in Ayrshire and Wigtownshire. It is not 
uncommon near Girvan, frequenting grass fields, where, on sum¬ 
mer nights, it is often detected by its soft and liquid note. 
Among rural people it is known by the name of weet-my-feet , these 
words being well expressed in the sounds emitted by the bird. 
Mr Gray has in his collection a specimen in summer plumage, 
shot near Kilmarnock, in May, 1868, by Mr Eaton, who states 
that it must breed somewhere in that neighbourhood. The nest 
has been frequently found in other parts of Ayrshire. Mr Gray 
has in his collection two very prettily marked eggs, taken along 
with other nine in a nest near Ardrossan, by Mr John Jamieson. 
