8 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



To these particulars he adds (in lit. 2oth September 1895): 

 " Of its occurrence well down the Firth in winter I know nothing." 

 And then he makes the following excellent remarks, with which, in 

 all such chronological work, we thoroughly agree ; and we would 

 desire strongly to urge their importance. " I consider it important," 

 says Mr. Paterson, "in a case like the present, that the result of 

 visits paid to localities in which the bird has been sought for and 

 not observed should be chronicled. How else can its spread as a 

 nesting species be adequately ascertained 1 Such data, in my 

 opinion, becomes of special value in the case of a bird which in 

 the day-time habitually exposes itself to view while resting on the 

 water ! You will see from the above table that in West (East ?) 

 Renfrewshire and at Fossil Marsh in Lanarkshire it may now be 

 considered a nesting species. It is satisfactory to be able to get 

 information of first appearances, and I think we are entitled to 

 believe that the Castle Semple and Fossil instances now put forward 

 are such. There can be little doubt, I think, also that the Kilpatrick 

 Hills lochs will shortly be colonised, and it will be interesting if 

 we can trace the beginnings there of what may become, as here 

 (Renfrewshire), a great movement." 



We have a much earlier record, however, for West Stirling- 

 shire than those relating to the Kilpatrick Hills lochs. Mr. James 

 Lumsden of Arden writes us he can vouch for their having bred on 

 Loch End, Caldarvon, every year since 1882 (and probably earlier). 

 This loch is about three miles east of Loch Lomond, and the ground 

 is very suitable, and about five pairs, more or less, nest there every 

 year. They are regular winterers on Loch Lomond, but Mr. 

 Lumsden has never seen a pair together on the latter loch, nor has 

 he heard of them being seen in summer. 



We were inclined at first to say that this record was more likely 

 due to an extension from eastward ; but having awaited precise 

 information from other likely localities in the Vale of Menteith, we 

 have found that the reverse is probably the case, notwithstanding 

 the long gap between the record by Mr. James Lumsden and those 

 of the moor lochs of Kilpatrick parish adjoining. As will be seen 

 later, an equally, or nearly as long a gap occurs between Mr. 

 Lumsden's record of nesting (1882) at Loch End and their first 

 appearance at the Lake of Menteith (J. Stirling, 1890) and at Loch 

 Ruskie (1893). As lochs at lower elevations are taken up first, as 

 a rule, the 1882 record predates the higher moor lochs of Kilpatrick. 

 It is difficult, therefore, to say whether Loch End owes its first 

 breeding pairs to an extension from Clyde or from Forth at least 

 so far as our statistics go. 



As regards the islands at the mouth of the Firth of Clyde, Mr. 

 W. Evans records seeing numbers on one of the lochs in Bute in 

 January 1895 ("Annals," 1895, p. 145). 



