16 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Callander," where he says : " Rare. Females are sometimes shot on 

 Loch Vennacher" (" Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edin.," March 1879, 



p. 61). 



Of its arrival and stay at Loch Mahaick on the Braes of Doune 

 in South-West Perthshire drainage area of "Forth"- my friend Col. 

 Duthie writes: "On the iSth April 1889 I first saw this species on 

 Loch Mahaick, a duck and drake. I went up there a day or two 

 later with Winter " (upwards of forty years gamekeeper at Doune 

 Lodo;e) " and showed them to him. He had never seen the duck 

 before. In every succeeding year these birds have been present at 

 the loch. In some springs I have seen six or seven birds, and a 

 pair at least remains to breed. I have seen them as late as July, 

 but have never found the nest. On the 3rd August 1891 an old 

 duck and a young ' Tuft ' were flushed, and the young one shot, 

 when I was present." Mr. Winter confirms the above, and adds : 

 "And it seems that one was shot about the same time (i.e. supra 

 1889) on Loch Watson, on Gartencaber ground, south of Doune." 



The earliest positive record I can refer to of the Tufted Duck 

 actually nesting on Loch Leven in Kinross-shire, is that clutch taken 

 there in 1875 and brought to Mr. Herbert, who hatched them out 

 under a hen, watched the growth of the young birds, and thus 

 identified the parents ("Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edin.," iv. p. 73). 

 At the present time they simply swarm on Loch Leven ; indeed it is 

 the greatest nursery of the species in Scotland. 



They also breed on the Loch Lindores in the north of Fife, 

 within two and a half miles of Newburgh. 



Another more recent expansion in Fife has taken place at Ballo 

 Reservoir, on the southern slope of the Lomond Hills. They have 

 been there at least three or four years. Ballo ponds are the 

 reservoirs for Kirkcaldy, and lie at a considerably higher elevation 

 than Loch Leven. At the present time, and since 1879, as we are 

 informed by Mr. J. J. Dalgleish, Tufted Ducks have nested on Loch 

 Glow and other lochs among the Outh Hills. 



Mr. Evans, who has paid special attention to this district of his 

 area, frequently visited Loch Leven and other localities frequented 

 by the birds between 1883 and 1895. He found them breeding in 

 greater or less quantity on the occasion of each visit, and saw 

 numerous birds on Loch Leven ; their numbers varying, however, 

 slightly from season to season, until his last visit to Loch Leven in 

 June 1894, "when their numbers did not seem to be greatly 

 different from what they were when I first was among them twelve 

 years ago." By 1895, as we know from Mr. Malloch's notes (supra), 

 a rapid or abrupt decrease became at once apparent after the 

 severe frost and late winter of that year. 



Amongst localities presently or up to 1895 occupied by the species, 

 Mr. Evans mentions Loch Leven (1875) ; Loch Gelly, Fife (common 



