200 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Methven, and presented to the Museum by Colonel D. M. 

 Smythe. He describes it as "another nest which was only 

 very lately known to be found in Perthshire." The same 

 year I found it breeding on Dupplin Loch, and though it 

 is not yet quite so common as the Tufted Duck, its numbers 

 are, I am glad to say, increasing, and it may now be con- 

 sidered one of our regular breeding ducks. 



THE WlGEON (Mareca penelope). Writing in 1878-79, 

 Colonel Drummond-Hay mentions the Wigeon as being 

 " pretty frequent every winter and autumn," and in his 

 synopsis of the Perthshire Birds he includes it among the 

 " Birds of Passage (Winter)." The first record of its nesting 

 in Perthshire is in the Perthshire Society of Natural Science 

 report for 1888-89 ( v l- * P- 97)- Colonel Drummond- 

 Hay states : " The nest of another rare Perthshire-breeding 

 duck, that of the Wigeon (with eggs), was presented by Sir 

 Robert Menzies. . . . Its nesting places, previous to that, 

 had, in Scotland, only been noticed in the Western Islands, 

 Orkney, parts of Aberdeenshire, and the extreme Northern 

 Counties." I visited the Black Mount in May 1895, 

 and on one small loch I counted eight males, the ducks 

 being at that time on their nests, which I did not attempt 

 to disturb. 1 M'Intyre, the head keeper, told me it was equally 

 abundant on other lochs in that district, where it regularly 

 breeds now. 2 



1 Wigeons were quite common on Loch Eagh and along the reedier margins 

 of the River Gower in the autumn of 1874, an d were known to breed there even 

 prior to that season, as well as on other lochs in the district. This may be 

 taken as the earliest recorded date, so far as I know ; but notice of earlier dates 

 for this and other localities of the same district would be acceptable. J. A. 

 HARVIE-BROWN. 



2 Localities of nesting distribution of the Wigeon in Scotland did not include, 

 as far as our records teach us, the Outer Hebrides or Aberdeenshire prior to 

 the date of 1888-89. Rather should the earlier general distribution of the species, 

 as a breeding bird, be described as follows i.e. prior to 1888. In Orkney, 

 only amongst the southern islands for some years prior to 1888. On the main- 

 land, in the Northern and North-Eastern districts i.e. Caithness and Northern 

 and Central Sutherlandshire, always east of the watershed. Later they came 

 southward, through North and North-East Ross-shire, rarely, if ever, being found 

 breeding west of the great dividing chain of mountains, and thence through 

 North Inverness-shire, and reaching North-West Perthshire some time previous 

 to 1874, where they bred commonly if not abundantly on the Moor of 

 Rannoch and along the Gower River and Loch Eagh. There were no records, 

 to our knowledge, of nesting birds in Aberdeenshire prior to that of Geo. Sim ; 

 nor are we aware of any records of sufficient authenticity anywhere in the 



