206 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



statement applied to the Greylag Goose on migration by Mr. 

 C. V. A. Peel, upon the authority of the present factor for Sir 

 Arthur C. Orde, Mr. Mackenzie. This may be so, but when 

 we know that the Greylag Goose breeds commonly within the 

 area of the Outer Hebrides, and in other parts of the main- 

 land, and that the Bernacle does not?, I think that it is possible 

 that these notes ought only to be held as applicable to the species 

 which is known to migrate beyond, because the marshalling of the 

 young birds of the year is more likely to necessitate the care of 

 the older birds when the species has a much longer flight to take 

 between the winter and the summer quarters. The Greylags are 

 natives, in great part, of the British Isles, but the Bernacles are 

 only visitants. The Greylags' distribution in Great Britain as a 

 nesting species is continuous with its nesting distribution in 

 Scandinavia, and North Europe west of the White Sea. But the 

 nesting area of the Bernacle Goose is "utterly beyond" in com- 

 parison ; and the latter species has no " finger-posts," so to speak, 

 on the course of their annual migrations. The young, therefore, are 

 more likely to require first guidance. 



Mr. Abel Chapman sends me the note, under date of October 2, 

 1900: "Observed the first Bernacles, a V-shaped skein, going N. 

 to S. 



WILD SWANS (C. musicus and C. bewickii, etc.), pp. 101, 102. 

 Although I have no account of Wild Swans nesting in Scotland to 

 chronicle, yet it is not uninteresting to tell what a vast increase of both 

 species has taken place since our earlier volumes appeared. There can, 

 I believe, be very little doubt that this great increase has been due to 

 the strict preservation which has for all these years been accorded 

 to them in the island of Tiree by the late Duke of Argyll ; and it 

 is earnestly to be hoped, in the interests of the birds, that the present 

 Duke will continue to them the same benign rule, or, in the event 

 of that island passing into any other proprietors' hands, that who- 

 ever purchases it will continue the clause in all leases to shooting 

 tenants of Tiree which provides for the Swans an absolutely perfect 

 sanctuary, and nothing less. At one time Tiree did not hold any- 

 thing like as many as it now does ; and Wild Swans were really 

 more abundant in South Uist than anywhere else, and far more so than 

 in Tiree or any of the other Outer or Inner Hebrides. A falling-off 

 in numbers, however, took place at their favourite resting-place 

 Loch Bee and it may be that the superior advantages supplied by 

 Tiree at that time may have induced this very effect, and added to 

 the numbers in the latter island at the expense of the former haunt. 

 Wild Swans have of late years been likewise preserved in South 

 Uist. 



However that may be, my correspondent writes me as follows : 

 "This last winter, i.e. 1900-1901, I counted on several occasions 



