30 
a kingfisher, which had been sitting on a twig overhead, an 
unobserved “ companion of the bath,” flashed like an emerald into 
the water, and almost immediately reappeared with a minnow, 
which it battered on a little ice block, and then devoured. In 
this group of tiny plungers a beautiful grey wagtail sat in discon¬ 
solate silence, the whole of the birds forming a somewhat inter¬ 
esting winter assembly. 
HIRUNDINIDM 
The Swallow (Hirundo rustled). 
Very common everywhere, extending to lonely and unfre¬ 
quented shielings on the hill sides, and breeding in the rafters, or 
under bridges spanning moorland burns. Mr Anderson took a 
nest of this bird in an outhouse at Penkill farm, which was built 
on a tree branch hanging from the roof. This nest is now in 
Mr Gray’s possession. It is composed of the usual materials, but 
is circular in shape, and profusely decorated with peacock’s 
feathers. After the nest had been removed, the birds constructed 
another in a similar situation, and bedecked it in the same orna¬ 
mental manner. A somewhat unusual site was selected by a pair 
of these birds this year at the Killochan Station, on the Maybole 
and Girvan Railway. The nest was built on the top ledge of a 
frame of an advertising placard, about eight or ten feet from the 
ground. 
The Martin (Hirundo urbica). 
This familiar species is, as may be supposed, common over both 
counties, frequenting towns, villages, and farm-steadings. On 
some country mansions we have counted as many as eighteen and 
twenty nests built under the projecting eaves, and clustered, in 
some cases, closely together. A large colony frequents a part of 
the rocky cliffs near the port of Currarie, a few miles south of 
Ballantrae. Their nests are placed in fissures of the rock above 
the mouth of a large cave frequented by cormorants and rock- 
doves. In wild weather these nests are sometimes in danger of 
destruction by the masses of spray dashed over their surface. 
The Sand Martin (Hirundo riparia). 
The haunts of this early summer visitant are met with in our 
district from the vicinity of the sea-shore to an elevation of ten 
