24 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



young birds at the schoolhouse there, and they are still 

 about the same place. I think this is the first season the 

 species has bred on the island. Several pairs of Blackbirds 

 (Turdus memta,L,.)ha.ve reared broods this season, probably all 

 the birds hatched on the island last year ; and they all took 

 very kindly to the berries, and even apples, in my garden, 

 and they seem also to have taught the Thrushes to try the same 

 diet at any rate I never noticed the latter species touch 

 gooseberries or currants till this year, when they were almost, 

 if not quite, as bad as the Blackbirds themselves. 



One nest of the Whinchat (Pratincola rubetra), with six 

 eggs, was got in the island by Mr. Proud of Bishop- 

 Auckland, and several broods of young birds were observed 

 by myself. 



The Rev. James Chisholm tells me that he saw a pair 

 of Bullfinches (Pyrrhula europcea) near Castlebay in September 

 last. This is a species not recorded in my former list. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE TAY 

 DISTRICT OF PERTHSHIRE. 



By Col. H. M. DRUMMOND HAY, C.M.Z.S. 



THE NUTHUTCH IN THE CARSE OF COWRIE. 



AN individual of this rare species for Scotland was distinctly 

 seen by Mr. Niel Richardson creeping up one of the large 

 timber trees in the park at Pitfour Castle on the 24th of 

 January of the present year, 1895. His attention was 

 attracted by a loud tapping on the bark, when he noticed 

 the bird, which was quite close, and being well known 

 to him in England, he had not the slightest doubt of 

 its identification ; and, as it were in confirmation of the 

 fact, either the same bird or another of the same species was 

 noticed only a few months afterwards by Mr. W. T. Caiman, 

 of the University College Museum, Dundee, climbing one of 

 the trees close to him on the top of Kinnoull Hill on the 

 i ith of September last, a distance at the most in a straight 

 line from the forementioned spot of scarcely three miles. 



