The Scottish Naturalist. 237 



Stirlingshire. — Mr. John A. Harvie Brown sends me the 

 following notes on the Jay in this county : — 



" The Jay is now an exceedingly scarce bird in the East of 

 Stirlingshire but is more abundant in the West. In 1866, I 

 recorded in the Zoologist a that it was rare even then, and at 

 that time I had only once met with the nest in this part of the 

 county; and in September 1867 I made further mention* of 

 the Jay, as still lingering in the Dunmore woods, where it is 

 difficult entirely to extirpate them, as accessions to their numbers 

 take place from time to time from the woods on the opposite 

 side of the Forth on the estates of Tulliallan, West Grange, &c. 

 In the coppices and woods of Alva, on the south slope of the 

 Ochils, the Jay is still found, but not numerously. Further 

 eastward it becomes somewhat more plentiful. The Jay is 

 well known by name to nearly every farm labourer in the east 

 of the county, and at one time was equally well known by 

 sight, but their decrease of late years, and almost total extirpa- 

 tion in some parts, is distinctly traceable to the persecution of 

 gamekeepers." 



Clackmannan and Kinross. — Mr. J. J. Dalgleish writes as 

 follows : — " The Jay is by no means an uncommon bird in the 

 district bounded on the south by the Forth, and lying between 

 Alloa and Dumfermline as far north as the Ochil hills, but its 

 numbers vary very much owing to their being at times nearly 

 exterminated in certain parts of this district by game keepers ; 

 even in those parts, however, they are generally found in spring 

 about the breeding season." 



Mr. Miller, gamekeeper, Tulliallan Castle, reports that Jays 

 are not rare in the woods of that estate and are found breeding, 

 but that they have much decreased in numbers during the last 

 twelve or sixteen years. 



Fifeshire. — Mr. John Gilmour of Lundin, tells me the Jay 

 is a very rare bird in that part of the " Kingdom of Fife." As 

 before mentioned it is more common in the neighbourhood of 

 Dunfermline and is also frequently met with in the north of the 

 county and on the borders of Perthshire. 



Mr. Robert Walker, writing of the Jay says^ " This bird 



a Zoologist S. S. p. 70. £ Zoologist, 1867, p. 894. 



c Scottish Naturalist, vol. i. p. 79. 



