VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS 163 



Anser einereus, Meyer. GREY-LAG GOOSE. The Grey-lag still keeps 

 up its numbers about Badenloch, but does not seem to increase 

 much, if at all. The birds have not been disturbed in any way, 

 as for as the lessee of the place could preserve them, for more 

 than twelve years. Foxes seem great destroyers of geese, 

 catching the old bird in the nest, and several were in this way 

 spoilt. So tame are the birds there, that we have walked 

 within eighty and a hundred yards of them feeding in one of 

 the grass parks near the house, and when they rose they only 

 went a short distance. Let us hope the new lessee of the place 

 will be as careful of them. The Grey-lag breeds on one of the 

 Badcall islands, and the people there take their eggs and hatch 

 them under hens. This year (1891) the Mathiesons (of Scourie) 

 took eggs from one of the islands in Loch Laxford (Charles 

 Candler in lit. to J. A. Harvie-Brown, 22nd July 1891). Grey- 

 lags appear at Badenloch in February. Under date, 3rd June 

 1888, Mr. Wallis, Reading, writes Harvie-Brown that the geese 

 have at last deserted Eillean Fiag in Loch Shin. 



Tadorna eornuta, Gincl. SHELDRAKE. An adult female was shot 

 at Wick, on the 3rd of April 1876 (R. W. Chase). 



Dafila aeuta, L. PINTAIL. A male Pintail was obtained in Dur- 

 ness, in April 1889, by Mr. A. Mackay. 



Fuligula ferina, L. POCHARD. Booth mentions that Pochards are 

 excessively abundant in east Loch Shin in autumn. One, a 

 male, was obtained at Balnakiell, in February 1890, by Mr. 

 Scott. We saw this species, in June 1889, in one of the 

 Caithness lochs, and from the appearance of the locality we 

 have little doubt they were breeding there ; our boat was, 

 however, too bulky to take into the reeds. 



Fuligula eristata, Leach. TUFTED DUCK. The Tufted Duck is 

 one of those birds that has spread enormously in the last three 

 or four years. So far we have, however, no record of its 

 breeding in Sutherland, though in one loch in the east of the 

 county these birds are to be seen all through the late summer 

 and autumn in numbers, the loch being full of weeds. Its 

 shores, however, are not adapted for breeding purposes. In 

 Caithness, we found a great many pairs breeding in a loch 

 amongst the reeds and grass at the sides ; indeed, they were 

 far the commonest species of duck on the loch. We found 

 several nests, two containing respectively sixteen and seventeen 

 eggs, at which rate it would not require many birds to stock 

 every suitable place in the county. 



Somateria mollissima, L. EIDER DUCK. Two Eiders were shot 

 in Sutherland but no exact locality is given on 4th January 

 1877 ; one was an adult male, the other an immature male in 



