The Scottish Naturalist. 235 



Aberdeenshire. — Mr. George Sim, of Aberdeen, tells me 

 the Jay is quite unknown in Aberdeenshire. It is also omitted 

 in Macgillivray's list of birds of Deeside and Braemar^ 



Kincardineshire. — In the county of Kincardine Jays are 

 rare. But I am informed on good authority, that at one time 

 they were more common than they are at present. 



Forfarshire. — This is one of the few counties in which 

 there is still a fair sprinkling of Jays. Mr. Henderson of 

 Dundee, informs me that they are found in all the wooded dis- 

 tricts of the county, especially in the north and east. But, as 

 in other places, the gamekeepers are wageing war against them, 

 and reducing their numbers year by year. In some districts 

 however where it is unmolested the species is on the increase. 



Perthshire. — In many parts of Perthshire the Jay is very 

 common. Mr. M'Gregor, head gamekeeper to the Duke of 

 Athole, writes, 8th July, 1875 : — " There are plenty of common 

 Jays about us, and they breed here. There are not quite so 

 many as I have seen, as we kill a great many of them every 

 year ; but it is quite a common thing to see them." On the 

 Castle Menzies estate, near Aberfeldy, they also breed every 

 .season. Mr. Harvie Brown, informs me that the species has 

 within the last ten or twelve years, "increased its numbers in 

 the valleys of the Tay and Tummel, especially in the latter, 

 above Ballinluig, and in the neighbourhood of Aberfeldy." Mr. 

 W. Cameron, in his list of the birds of Balquhidder, b notes the 

 Jay as breeding in Strathyre Woods. In the North-East of the 

 county they are met with but are on the decrease ; and in the 

 North-West they are very rare. Writing of the Jay from the 

 neighbourhood of Auchterarder, Mr. J. A. Haldane, junior, of 

 Cloanden, says, " at one time there used to be a considerable 

 number, but now they are rare ; I fancy from being killed 

 down as vermin, and for the sake of their feathers for Salmon 

 flies." Sir Thomas Moncreiffe states that a few breed every 

 year at Moncreiffe, and that there are generally a few to be 

 found in the Lynedoch Woods, near Methven. Colonel 

 Drummond Hay tells me that about forty years ago the Jay was 

 ■?' abundant in the Carse of Gowrie, and various other localities 

 in the vicinity of Perth, but from their being trapped, poisoned, 



a Natural History of Deeside and Braemar, by W. Macgillivray, Edited 

 by E. Lankester, 1855. 



b Scottish Naturalist Vol. ii. p. 9. 



