ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE TAY DISTRICT 27 



birds, having made their appearance almost at the same time, 

 would probably be a distinct flight from those on Loch Tay, 

 which Mr. Dewar further informs me is not an unusual thing 

 on the Loch at that season of the year ; birds having been seen 

 at Stanley and elsewhere as late as October before the rod- 

 fishing closed, so tame and close to the boats as to allow the 

 rods and lines to pass over them. These may probably 

 have been augmentations from Loch Tay that had dropped 

 down the river seawards. 



POMARINE SKUA. 



A bird of this species was caught on the 24th of November 

 last in a very exhausted state in the kitchen garden at Inchyra 

 House, in the Carse of Cowrie, near this, a short half mile in 

 a direct line from the Tay. It was supposed to have been 

 wounded, but on dissection was found to be perfectly sound, 

 but in a starved condition. This is the first time that the 

 Pomarine Skua has ever been known to me to have been 

 seen so high up the river, and the first record I have of it in 

 Perthshire. 



At all times, with the exception of the autumn of 1879, 

 when there was a remarkable irruption of these birds on the 

 lower part of the Tay, it may be considered a very rare 

 visitant. The bird in question proved to be a female of the 

 first year, much resembling the young of the Arctic Skua, a 

 much more common bird to the Tay, but to be distinguished 

 at a glance, not only by the white shafts of the wing and the 

 inner white webs, but by the vivid colouring of the legs and 

 feet, the former being of a pale steel blue with a yellow 

 tinge at the hinder part of the knee. The anterior part of 

 the toes and webs yellow, with the exception of the outer 

 toes, which, with the rest, along with the webs, are deep black, 

 claws very dark brown, hinder toe yellow, claw white the 

 blue of the legs soon fades to a brownish yellow. 



VARIETY IN THE PLUMAGE OF THE MALE TEAL. 



It may be of interest to record a very beautifully 

 plumaged Teal drake shot on the Tay near this on the 

 5th instant ; the whole plumage not only being exception- 



