6 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



southerly direction, and when disturbed always flying back 

 by the same route." At Blackpark, some 9 miles N.W.W. 

 of Perth, they have been established for some years. Mr. 

 Athole MacGregor, writing from Cardney, Perthshire, speaks 

 of them as nesting commonly in rocky slopes and precipices 

 on the open moors. 



Returning to the east coast counties, we have been unable 

 to obtain a single record from Kincardineshire, but we do 

 not feel certain that this may not be owing to scarcity of 

 observers. Meanwhile, so let it be. From Aberdeenshire 

 I ;have abundant evidence, through our friend Mr. Geo. 

 Sim, and may shortly state : their first appearance was upon 

 the Links of St. Fergus to the north of Peterhead, where 

 they have nested regularly for the past eight or nine years. At 

 present there may be from 25 to 30 pairs there. They next 

 appeared upon the " Black Bar," between the Loch of Strath- 

 beg and the sea, where they have bred for several years back. 

 Lastly, they appeared at Minnie Links, about 8 miles north 

 of Aberdeen, in 1888 about 25 pairs. Thus the Stock 

 Doves appear to have spread southward from their first 

 residence in " Dee," or, at all events, populated areas south 

 of their first known place upon St. Fergus Links ; neither Mr. 

 Geo. Sim nor I have succeeded in obtaining a single record 

 from either Forfar or Kincardine south of the river Dee. 



Coming to the Moray Basin, Stock Doves now swarm 

 both along the low shores amongst the links, sand-hills, and 

 rabbit-warrens, as far as Nairn, and penetrate far up the 

 Findhorn, Spey, Lossie, even into the lower outspurs of the 

 mountains, to an elevation of 2600 feet. It is needless to 

 review in this place the more minute steps of advance. 

 Suffice it to say, in 1883 I first heard of Stock Doves at 

 Pitgaveny near Elgin. By 1887 I observed numbers there 

 and near Findhorn (east side), and it is now increasing west 

 of the River Findhorn rapidly, and reaching up the Findhorn 

 valley. Curiously enough, however, there is no great appear- 

 ance of them upon the River Deveron, although in 1893 

 we saw a few when fishing Laithers and Netherdale waters 

 on that river. The records as yet to the north of Inverness 

 are by no means full of detail. But in 1889 Buckley took 

 eggs in the east of Sutherland for the first time, on I9th 



