238 The Scottish Naturalist. 



which was not uncommon at one time, has now become rare irt 

 the east of Fife." 



Haddington-shire. — Mr. A. Hepburn writing in 1843, notes 

 the decrease of the species in East Lothian, a and Mr. Turnbull 

 in his " Birds of East Lothian" says the Jay is * " rather scarce, 

 used to be plentiful in Gladsmuir Woods." 



Mr. R. Scott Skirving, in his examination before the com- 

 mittee of the House of Commons on wild birds' protection states 

 that there are no Jays in the neighbourhood of his farm in East 

 Lothian, c 



The result of enquiries up to the present date shows that the 

 species is yearly becoming more scarce in this country. 



Edinburgh and Linlithgow. — Lieut. -Colonel Wedderburn 

 in his list of the birds found at Rosslyn and neighbourhood^ 

 marks the Jay as a common species. But it is rather rare in 

 other districts. The birdstuffers of Edinburgh do not receive 

 many from either of these counties. And this with a species of 

 such marked plumage as the Jay is a strong proof of its scarce- 

 ness. In Linlithgowshire it has very much decreased in num- 

 bers during the last twenty or twenty-five years ; for at one 

 time, I am informed, it was a comparatively common bird in 

 the county, and now it is rarely seen. 



Lanarkshire. — Mr. E. R. Alston writes, "In the upper 

 ward of Lanarkshire the Jay is decidedly local. I have never 

 seen it myself, but a few breed in some places, as at Blackwood 

 and Darfen, in Lesmahagow parish. I have received it from 

 near Bothwell," It is also found breeding in the Hamilton 

 woods, but in very limited numbers, and is getting scarcer 

 every year. Mr. Stewart of Murdostoun Castle writes me that 

 neither he nor his gamekeeper — who has been on the ground 

 for 9 years — has ever seen a Jay on that estate. 



Renfrewshire. — I have no note of the species having ever 

 occurred in this county. 



Mr. John Peebles, gamekeeper to Sir M. R. S. Stewart, 

 writes "There are none on the Ardgowan estate, and there 



a Zoologist, 1843, P« 37°* 



b Birds of East Lothian, by William P. Turnbull, pub. 1867, page 18. 

 c Report from the Select Committee on Wild Birds' Protection, 1873^. 

 p. 64. 



d Scottish Naturalist, vol. i. p. 152. 



