370 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



of Common and Arctic Terns were nesting, and dead examples of 

 both species w^ere found, one in each case. The heather on this, 

 as its name signifies, Heather Island, was much appreciated by 

 the Red-breasted Merganser as cover, a nest with eight eggs and 

 another with three, the latter quite covered over with heather 

 debris^ bein"- found, w^hile old nests and unoccupied nests of this 

 species were also found. Lamb Island, or Eilean Aoghainn, closely 

 adjoining Fraoch Island, was another nesting site of the Red- 

 breasted Merganser, Brake-ferns again supplying the cover. One 

 nest had been rifled of its contents by the Carrion-Crow {Corvus 

 cor one, Linn.). Several of these black rascals were seen about 

 the island during our visit, and they were again seen there on 

 our return down the loch on the following day. We found a 

 Red-breasted Merganser's nest with ten eggs covered with down, 

 and one with the extraordinary number of sixteen eggs. [PI. 

 XII.] In its vegetative aspect this was the most attractive island 

 we had yet visited. Rock-Pipits abounded, and a pair of 

 Common Sandpipers was pretty certainly nesting on it. Rabbits 

 had estabhshed themselves here, and a few pairs of Terns 



only. 



From Lamb Island we proceeded to the head of the loch. 

 Coming down we landed at Dundarave Castle, noting here the 

 Spotted Flycatcher (MuscicajM grisola, Linn.), Redstart (Euticilla 

 ^Ace7iic7*rMS (Linn.)), Wood-Wren (PA2/^^oscoj9wssi6i?a«Haj(Bechst.)), 

 and Tree-Pipit (Anthus trivialis (Linn.)). Here, as at Skipness 

 Castle, we looked in vain for the Swift, a bird quite characteristic 

 of the numerous old castles in Ayrshire, as long since pointed out 

 by Gray. Resuming our j ourney, we reached Inveraray, and here we 

 had a walk through the policy and ascended Dunaquaich. We 

 were naturally very much dehghted with the great woods around 

 the castle, and our visit being coincident with the flowering of the 

 Wood Hyacinth, we saw them with great sheets of blue in the open 

 spaces, and a "hyacinthine haze" . . . "spreading round the roots" 

 in the recesses of the woods. We came on an interesting pinetum on 

 our way up Dunaquaich, but such collections seem to have fallen 

 out of fashion. They have in a sense overstood their market, and 

 this one had the neglected appearance which we have come to 

 associate with them. W^e had not much time to spare, but we 

 took the following measurements of trees which seemed to us to 



