4 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



time drawn up, one list being applicable to the North and 

 the other to the South of Scotland. The disadvantages of 

 having, perhaps, totally different groups of birds protected 

 within adjacent counties having practically the same 

 physical configuration were sufficiently conspicuous ; and the 

 County Council of Fife, among others, adopted Lord Balfour's 

 scheme, with the relative schedule of birds applicable to the 

 southern half of Scotland. The adoption of this plan involved 

 the repeal of the Tentsmuir Order of the previous year, with 

 its very much longer list of protected birds ; but the General 

 Order does all that is required, as well for Tentsmuir as for 

 the rest of the county ; though, as it may be hoped that our 

 breeding lists will be extended as the universal system of 

 egg-gathering hitherto in vogue is gradually checked, it 

 might be well to add to the lists from time to time any new 

 birds whose claims to protection may emerge. Already, in 

 fact, the addition of the Pintail to our list is emphatically 

 called for ; and the Arctic Tern, which the writer would 

 have liked to see included in the original list, might be 

 added at the same time. But if the lists are thus subject to 

 occasional revision, great things may be hoped from this 

 well-considered scheme. The Act, however, when it has been 

 adopted, must be properly supported and enforced, and not 

 permitted to become a dead letter in the district ; without 

 support and assistance from game preservers and land- 

 owners generally, its power for good will be much restricted. 

 On the northern ' third ' of Tentsmuir, where the Act 

 has been thus backed up, there has been an undoubted im- 

 provement. Several Eider Ducks' nests may now be found, 

 without difficulty, where one was to be found before ; and of 

 those found this year, all but two, which were destroyed by 

 the heavy rainfall, were successfully hatched. Golden Plovers 

 have been more numerous this summer than they have been 

 for years ; moreover, they all left the moor soon after the 

 middle of July, instead of lingering on into August as they 

 would probably have done had even the earlier eggs been 

 gathered. This year it was the early eggs that were hatched, 

 and long before August both young and old had gone else- 

 where. Ducks of two or three kinds nested in most unusual 

 numbers, and among them was at least one pair of Shovellers 



