THE TUFTED DUCK IN SCOTLAND 13 



small brood having been hatched out, but as a rule they do not 

 breed here. In winter they are plentiful, but as the summer 

 approaches they leave." 



On the Lake of Menteith a place apparently admirably suited 

 to them they have only appeared recently. Mr. Stirling of Garden 

 saw a pair on igth March 1890, also a pair on Loch Ruskie, 4th 

 April 1893; an d th e Cardross keeper has only noticed "the Black 

 Ducks " on Lake of Menteith for about three years. None have been 

 shot, nor have they bred that he knows of (1895). 



Turning now to areas north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, 

 we find we are able to continue our records with considerable exact- 

 ness, what with our own series of Scottish faunas and other materials 

 at our command to refer to. 



WEST COAST AND ISLANDS. 



Beginning in the southern areas north of Clyde, Captain Gould 

 shot a Tufted Duck in Tiree (one of the Inner Hebrides) in the 

 winter of 1887, and since then we have the record that more than 

 one pair bred in Tiree in 1892, and it had also become a regular 

 winter visitor to most of the islands of the Inner group of the 

 Hebrides Mull at Lochbuie (The Maclean in lit.} in winter ; rarer 

 in Islay (H. Evans). In Islay and Jura there are suitable haunts 

 (reedy lochs, etc.), but which are not yet taken up. The Tufted 

 Duck only visits Skye as a straggler, as we are informed by Rev. 

 H. A. Macpherson. 



Not until the winter of 1894-95 has Mr. Bisshopp, naturalist, 

 Oban, ever found Tufted Ducks abundant. Before then he occasion- 

 ally received specimens, mostly from the Outer Hebrides, sent of 

 course as rarities. But we have the early record of the " New Statisti- 

 cal Account " for Ardchattan Parish along the shores of Loch Awe 

 (1845). We have ourselves observed the birds on Loch Gown, on 

 the watershed between East and West Ross, in June ; and Rev. H. 

 A. Macpherson has met with it also on one of the Ross-shire lochs 

 between Strome Ferry and Dingwall (see Moray). 



But in the Outer Hebrides we have no records of its nesting up 

 to the date of the publication of that volume, viz. 1889 ; nor have 

 we obtained any since that time till now, when the record still 

 remains that "it occurs sparingly in winter." 



PERTH AND FIFE. 



Passing now to the northern portions of the " Forth " area, viz. 

 Fife, Kinross, Clackmannan, and to the south of the watershed, we 

 find an almost startling difference in the population of the species, 

 in fact, as Mr. Evans says, this is " its headquarters in the breeding 

 season." This is curious and worthy of attention in connection with 



