162 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



ON THE NESTING OF THE PINTAIL (DAFILA 

 ACUTA] IN THE "FORTH" AREA. 



By WILLIAM EVANS, F.R.S.E. 



THE late John Hancock believed, apparently on substantial 

 grounds, that the Pintail bred at Prestwick Car, in Northum- 

 berland, prior to the drainage of that famous bird-haunt many 

 years ago. 1 Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey has stated that in 

 Ireland it has bred in Lord Castletown's duck preserves at 

 Abbeyleix, Queen's County, and that he has himself seen 

 females with young broods on Loughs Mask and Corrib in 

 County Galway. 2 As regards Scotland, Mr. Harvie-Brown ob- 

 tained four duck's eggs on the island of Hysgeir, Inner Hebrides, 

 in June 1881, which he afterwards identified as Pintail's by 

 means of the down and a feather found in the nest ; 3 and he has 

 also recorded a supposed nest got on a loch in Sutherland in 

 i882. 4 Such, shortly, is the sum-total of the recorded infor- 

 mation concerning this, one of the most graceful of ducks, as 

 a British breeding species. 5 It is, therefore, no small satisfac- 

 tion to me to be able to record the nesting of several 

 perhaps not less than six or seven pairs this year on a loch 

 in the Forth area, to wit Loch Leven in Kinross-shire. 



Pintail on Loch Leven in March, which I had myself 

 seen, had little or no significance ; but when Messrs. T. G. 

 Laidlaw and Bruce Campbell reported having observed a 

 pair there on ist May 1897, and again on 3Oth April of the 

 present year, my suspicions were aroused, and I determined 

 to thoroughly investigate the matter. Accordingly, on I4th 

 May last, accompanied by my son, who wished to photograph 

 a few nests, I visited a portion of the loch, and had the 

 pleasure of seeing three of the birds I was in search of, 

 namely a male and a female feeding quietly in a grassy pool, 



1 "Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and Durham," 1874. A. G. 

 More states that Hancock had found the nest (" Ibis," 1865, p. 443). 



2 "The Fowler in Ireland," 1882. 



3 "Proceedings Royal Physical Society," vol. vii., 1881-83. 



4 "Fauna of Sutherland," etc., 1887. 



6 Mr. Charles Dixon states in his " Nests and Eggs of British Birds " that he 

 has every reason to believe that the Pintail breeds on certain small rocky islets in 

 the Firth of Forth. Such statements, however, prove nothing, and cannot, 

 therefore, be taken into account. 



