228 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Many birds of prey are on the decrease, such as the Buzzard, 

 Hen Harrier, and even the bold little Merlin, while the Sparrow- 

 Hawkj as I am informed by Mr Crawford, is holding its own, if 

 not increasing, in the northern districts. The decrease is owing 

 entirely to the direct intervention of man in most cases, and the 

 increase of the latter species, to the growth and extension 

 of woods and plantations. I am glad to say that Eagles 

 and Peregrines still appear to hold their own in some of 

 the wilder districts, and even to have increased in numbers. It 

 is not perhaps difficult to find the cause in the great tracts of 

 country devoted to deer forests, where their lives are usually 

 respected, and where they generally find a sanctuary undisturbed 

 by all who take a proper view of their usefulness.^ 



In other species again, there appears to be little alteration in 

 numbers, and in some cases it was interesting to me to mark 

 how persistently some old remembered spot has been frequented 

 by this pair of Dippers, or that pair of Ring-Ouzels or Grey Wag- 

 tails, probably the same that frequented it eight years ago. 



It is, I think, unnecessary to say more in this place concerning 

 these changes. Under each species in the following list, such 

 changes as I have myself noticed, or which have been reported to 

 me upon what I consider good authority and sufficiently authentic, 

 as well as other matters, will be found duly recorded. 



Before proceeding with a list of the species of birds upon which 

 I have made fresh observations, it may not be considered out of 

 place to say a few words regarding the mammals. There is not 

 sufficient new material at hand to make it worth while to treat 

 of them separately, and indeed they can be dismissed in very few 

 words. The Otter and Polecat are both rare now in the interior 

 of the county, as compared with a few years back, but they are 

 still found not uncommonly on the Stoir peninsula, near the 

 shores. The "Wild Cat is also much rarer now, if not indeed 

 extinct, in Assynt ; so also is the Marten (Martes ahiehcm, Flem.). 

 In the Reay country, however, as we are informed by Mr H. M. 

 Wallis (Zool., 1877, p. 292), one of the keepers had 15 skins 

 awaiting the annual visit of the furrier's traveller in 1876. 



Mr Thomas Mackenzie of Dornoch Castle tells me that Fallow 



* Possibly the decrease of the Peregrine Falcon in certain districts may, 

 however, in some degree be caused by the decrease of its favourite food — the 

 grouse, thus forming an exception to the above rule (vide further on page 231). 



