210 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



(e.g. Mr. Guthrie, gamekeeper (eighteen years resident), and Dr. 

 M'Rury). Comparatively large flocks are now seen in winter in that 

 island ; and, what is even more significant, they remain for weeks. 

 Mr. M'Elfrish considers it a regular winter visitor now, " though not 

 so until recent years." Mr. C. V. A. Peel considers it also as very 

 common in Benbecula in winter, dating 1901. 



Of records of these birds anywhere north of the Sound of Harris 

 I have only one, viz. one shot by Mr. Ratclyffe Waters upon 

 Galston Shootings on October i, 1894. It was accompanied by 

 other three. But information regarding the half-tame Pintails and 

 their progeny at Rodel, Harris, makes it very difficult to assign these 

 to a truly wild origin. Bred in 1902. 



In a letter dated August 22, 1902, my able correspondent in 

 South Uist informs me that he had " seen several times a brood of 

 Pintail ducks six young, with the two old birds nearly able to 

 fly"; and he adds, "It is the first time I have seen young Pintails. 

 I cannot say where the nest was, but am certain not far away. I 

 saw the young when very small, but not in down." 



WIGEON (Mareca penelope), p. 104. As yet I have not a single 

 record of the VVigeon nesting in the Outer Hebrides from north to 

 south. For the present, at least, these islands appear to lie outside 

 the influence of the return of the great migratory flights which appear 

 throughout the group during the winter, and I think such a negative 

 statement is worthy of record. As early as September Mr. Agnew 

 reported Wigeon striking the lantern of the Monach Lighthouse upon 

 the north side when the wind at the time was blowing from the 

 south (vide schedule of September 3, 1889). 



I have the interesting note from Sir Arthur Campbell Orde, 

 kindly forwarded by Mr. M'Elfrish, that a Wigeon "flapper" was 

 shot on North Uist in August 1891. And it is of interest to learn 

 that the Wigeon has been recorded as nesting in Ireland at a still 

 later date (vide "Zoologist," 1901, p. 269). 



A single male is reported as having been seen at midsummer 

 1902 on a loch in South Uist by Mr. D. Mackenzie of Mull. 



The following dates are useful. Mr. Radclyffe Waters says : 

 " I find the following dates of the killing of Wigeon the " firsts " 

 of the season. At Galson, in Lewis, August 29, 1890 ; September 

 20, 1892; October n, 1893; September 25, 1894; September 25, 

 1895. And at Gress, on the other side of the island, October 5, 

 1897; October 17, 1899. 



A White Wigeon has been repeatedly seen associating with a 

 flock of those birds during the winter of 1901-2 near Grogary, South 

 Uist. 



SCAUP DUCK (F. marila), p. 105. For a number of years it 

 remained a doubtful matter as to whether this bird had ever bred in 

 Scotland or not. Jardine and Selby were the first ornithologists to 



