Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/394

362 stray Scaup-Duck (Fuligula marila) must have come from an ornamental water. It is just possible that, as in the case of the Teal, the breeding range of this species may be creeping further southward. I am not aware that the Scaup has been known to breed even so far south as the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright; yet on May 25th, 1892, I saw a pair of these birds frequenting Jordieland Loch, a sheet of water on the moors about five miles from the town of Kirkcudbright. I need hardly repeat from my notes that:

"The male had a black neck and breast, the upper parts of the body also being dark, the under parts white. The female was similarly marked, but dusky. Their cry was hoarse compared with that of the Mallard."

Looking to the season at which I saw these birds—at the time a female Mallard had her young, little puffs of down, in the water in another part of the loch—I think that the Scaup may have bred either there or in the vicinity, although unfortunately I could not certify this. The Teal breeds in fair numbers iu that part of the country; the numbers to be seen in winter do not all remain to breed, but I think these are on the increase. It is not improbable that the same climatic tendency that keeps the Teal may ultimately keep the Scaup.— (Edinburgh).

Occurrence of the Fork-tailed Petrel on the Yorkshire Coast.—I have a fine example of this Petrel (Cymochorea leucorrhoa Vieill.), taken on the beach at Filey on March 26th of this year, after some heavy westerly gales. This bird has been set up with the wings expanded, and the light smoky grey of the upper wing-coverts is very conspicuous. Both this and the closely allied Ridgway's Petrel (Oceanodroma cryptoleucura) of the Canary Seas are figured in Lord Lilford's 'Illustrations.' In the latter the tail is not deeply forked, but nearly square. The upper tail-coverts are described ('Ibis,' 1897, p. 54) as white tipped with black; this feature, however, is probably common to both, as my Filey bird has the tips of the white upper tail-coverts and the shafts of the same very dark.— (Great Cotes House, R.S.O., Lincoln).

Bird Notes from the Northern Cairngorms. —The following account of some of the birds which are to be found near Aviemore, Inverness-shire, is the result of a few rough notes made by myself this summer (June 24thJuly 7th) during a holiday spent in the district with three fellow-tourists. We made Coylum Bridge our headquarters, from whence we explored the forests of Rothiemurchus and Glenmore, and the northern slopes of the Cairngorm Mountains. Our first expedition was to Lochan Eileau, where we hoped to see the Ospreys (Pandion haliaëtus), a pair of which are said to have nested on a ruined castle in the loch, with varying intervals, for the last century. We were much disappointed to find the eyrie deserted, but on enquiry were told that a pair had arrived as usual in May. Soon after