14 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



the earliness of recorded dates. We purpose giving here our own 

 notes as already written, taking Perthshire and Fife, or " Tay " and 

 " Forth," together. 



First, however, we have to mention the earliest date at our com- 

 mand which is afforded by Sir Wm. Jardine of its occurrence at 

 Loch Leven, viz. "April last "(1843) ("Naturalist's Library," vol. 

 xiv. p. 143) ; but, as MacGillivray has said as late as 1852 ("British 

 Birds," vol. v. p. 125), from Clyde and Forth estuaries northwards, " it 

 becomes of less frequent occurrence on both sides of the island," 

 Sir Wm. Jardine's record at Loch Leven must be classed as an 

 exceptional circumstance, if an early one, and correlates with others 

 given north of the parallel of 56 N. lat. previous to MacGillivray's 

 date of 1852. 



There had been evidence for a considerable time of the Tufted 

 Duck frequenting Loch Tay as a winter visitor along with other 

 species, and we find it recorded that in 1879-80, or, to be more 

 exact, between October 1879 and September or October 1880, 

 " most of the duck tribe appeared on Loch Tay earlier than usual 

 by a month" (including the Tufted Duck) "and continued in unusual 

 numbers all the winter " (" Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. of Glasgow," 

 vol. iv., April 1880, p. 320). Indeed during that season ducks were 

 unusually abundant both on our coasts and inland, excepting the 

 Wild Duck, which was as unusually scarce. 



Mr. Duncan Dewar, the well - known naturalist - gamekeeper 

 (whose fine local collection has lately been acquired by the Perth 

 Museum, and who afforded me the above information in 1880), 

 writes us recently that the Tufted Duck is still only a winter visitor 

 on Loch Tay. This no doubt arises from local causes, the shores 

 not affording the requisite peaceful shelter and herbage. The first 

 Mr. D. Dewar ever recognised was in the spring of 1880 a dozen 

 in Remony Bay. 



The only pair of Tufted Ducks which are in the Perth Museum 

 are labelled February 1878, and were from Methven Loch. 



The earliest record is that given in the " Ibis," at Butterstone 

 Loch in Perthshire (op. cit., 1875, P- 5 X 4)- 



We ourselves have usually visited Loch Leven for fishing at the 

 time when the numbers of the young would be added to those of 

 the parents, and this was the time of year when, by the permission of 

 Sir Graham Montgomery, Mr. Malloch and Mr. J. G. Millais went 

 there to shoot. Our friend Mr. J. G. Millais, who visited Loch 

 Leven twice anually for ten years, first in 1879, puts the number 

 seen by him in 1880 "at over 100 females with young; and in each 

 succeeding year in which I visited Loch Leven," he continues (in 

 lit.\ "in August and September I saw increasing numbers of Tufted 

 Ducks which had bred there." This estimate agrees with our own, 

 and we certainly would consider that they could only be counted by 



