212 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



It may be remembered that Eagle Clarke and I identified 

 Pochards old and young in Tiree in 1891 ; and no doubt they 

 had bred there on previous occasions ; and they do so still. Of its 

 increase elsewhere in Scotland it is unnecessary here to speak ; it is 

 sufficient merely to refer back to what is generally known by Scottish 

 naturalists, and to what has been recorded since the publication of 

 the different volumes of our Scottish Series, in the " Annals of 

 Scottish Natural History," and in a few other periodicals. 



Dr. C. Gordon has the marginal note in his copy of MacGillivray's 

 " British Birds," that they Pochards " are constant winter visitors, 

 in small flocks, on the lakes of South Uist." 



Two were shot in Barra, early in September 1894, by Mr. Peel, 

 who tells me these two birds were only just able to fly, and " that their 

 beaks were easily broken, showing that they were young birds, and 

 had (probably. J. A. H.-B.) been bred on the loch, the parents 

 escaping when I fired." I think this may yet come to be accepted 

 as the first instance of the Pochard found nesting in Barra, or, 

 for that part, anywhere in the Outer Hebrides. 



Immediately south of the Sound of Harris, however, Mr. 

 M'Elfrish did obtain one a few years ago. 



In reply to special inquiry, Mr. J. Finlayson, speaking of the 

 breeding of this duck in South Harris, writes as follows : " As 

 regards Pochards breeding in Harris, they may have been ' escapes ' 

 from Lord Dunmore's Wild-fowl introductions, or they might have 

 been the young of them (as the old birds were all pinioned, whilst 

 the young were quite strong on the wing). They could not have 

 been any of the two pairs of Pochards that Lord Dunmore put 

 down. Also, on Loch Osigarry, that same season, there were lots 

 of Pochards all winter." Since the above was written I have heard 

 of one Pochard shot as far to the north as Coll Farm, near 

 Stornoway, by Mr. Radclyffe Waters. (All this shows the abomina- 

 tion of unrecorded introductions and random acclimatisations. ) 



TUFTED DUCK (Fuligula cristata), p. 105. Even as early as 

 1851, when C. Gordon wrote his marginal notes in the fifth volume 

 of his copy of MacGillivray's " British Birds," he spoke of the 

 Tufted Duck as " common and plentiful in South Uist during winter." 

 I have little additional to relate regarding this species, now so 

 abundant in many parts of Scotland, since the issue of our volume 

 in 1888. Bisshopp of Oban did not find Tufted Ducks at all 

 common until the winter of 1894-95, and before then he had 

 obtained a few from the Outer Hebrides sent as rarities. Nor 

 do I now find any records of its having nested in any of the islands 

 of the group. The information given in an article by the present 

 writer, upon "The Tufted Duck and its Dispersal in Scotland," at 

 that time brought its history fairly well up-to-date (" Ann. Scot. Nat. 

 Hist." 1896, with a map showing the distribution, pp. 3-22). 



