Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/175

Rh the olden time ? Has his accuracy been tried by this the one stand- ard of justice — and was it found wanting ? It gives me pleasure to be able to do justice to his memory : I know of three instances in this neighbourhood in which solitary pairs have scooped their nest, many miles distant from the larger colonies, and even these are composed of very few pairs. They are found in the banks of our mountain streams in their course through the lowlands, and in a sand-bank washed by the ocean's surge, to the westward of the basaltic rocks of Whitberry Point. — Archibald Hepburn; Whittingham, March 27, 1843.

Notes on the Swallow. Ten years have elapsed since I first read the pleasant monograph on the swallow, by the good philosopher of Selborne. The circumstance of its building in chimneys was, to me, both novel and astonishing. To this hour I have spared neither per- sonal research nor enquiry to ascertain whether they frequent such situations in Scotland. The result is, that they have been known to breed in the chimney-stalk of steam-engines on different farms, but none of my friends or correspondents, has ever heard of their breeding in the chimney of any dwelling-house or out-house in Scotland, Now instead of theorizing on this apparent anomaly, let me call the atten- tion of field naturalists in the northern counties of Britain to the cir- cumstance. Let them ascertain the geographical limits within which the swallow breeds in the chimneys of dwelling-houses, and thus elu- cidate this long-neglected point in its economy. Swallows usually depart from E. Lothian about the latter end of September. Last sea- son, one was observed at Whittingham House on the 8th of Novem- ber, and another at Tantallon castle opposite to the Bass Rock, on the 12th of the same month. This late residence of the swallow in Scot- land is, I believe, unparelleled.—Id.

Note on the Migration of Birds. I have read with pleasure the many interesting notices which you have already published, of the effect which the mildness of the past autumn and early winter has ex- erted on the habits and migrations of birds. The following are a few of the more striking incidents which have occurred to me. When crossing a lonely moor in Lanarkshire on the 11th of October, I saw several fieldfares. A few days afterwards, Mr. M. Carfrae, preserver of animals to the museum of the Edinburgh University, told me he saw another flock about a month previously, at Lasswade, near that city : their early appearance is unprecedented with us. Observed a woodcock on the 17th of October; they have been very numerous this season, and so have the various species of ducks, but geese have been very scarce. Bramblings were uncommonly abundant. Observed a