8 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



PITMEDDEN. A small heronry not mentioned in Mr. Watt's lists. 

 It was formerly larger, but has apparently not prospered since 

 as Mr. Alexander Reid tells me, a wind storm several years ago 

 blew down many of the trees. 



HADDO HOUSE. In Mr. Watt's first list. 



PITFOUR. Mentioned in the supplementary list as having been 

 tenanted by a few pairs about ten years ago. I am glad to say 

 that the colony still exists : this season there were 14 nests, but 

 apparently only between 8 and 10 pairs of birds. The strength 

 of the colony is believed to have remained very much the same 

 for several years. The present nests are all in high beech 

 trees, but formerly there were some " in shrubs on the island." 



*PARKHILL. In Mr. Watt's original list, but now, I regret to say, 

 extinct. It is the only heronry which the late Mr. George Sim 

 mentioned in his "Vertebrate Fauna of 'Dee'" (1903), and 

 that only to say that it was on the verge of extinction at the 

 hands of local egg-collectors. 



*SCOLTIE HILL, BANCHORY, and *GIGHT. Are former sites, men- 

 tioned as such in Mr. Watt's first list. 



*Near HUNTLY. Traditional site referred to in the supplementary 

 list. The following three traditional sites are not given in 

 either list. 



*BALMUIR, DUNECHT. A few pairs nested in old spruce trees there 



for a few years until the trees were blown down " in the gale 



of 1 860." ' 

 *LociE ELPHINSTONE. According to the present keeper, there was 



a heronry at this place many years ago. 

 *CASTLE ERASER. A former heronry in Scots pines there has been 



extinct for at least thirty years, although a pair is occasionally 



known to nest in the district. 



We have thus in " Dee " at present 9 tenanted 

 heronries and a heron population of about 80 breeding pairs. 

 I owe much of the above information to the generous help 

 of Miss D. Hamilton of Skene and Mr. Wm. Seton Meston, 

 Inverurie. I must also express indebtedness to all the 

 informants mentioned and to the gamekeepers of several of 

 the estates. 



While collecting the above data it has struck me that the 

 Heron would lend itself most admirably to a statistical study 

 which might possibly prove of great interest I therefore 

 venture to suggest to Mr. Boyd Watt and others interested 



