The Scottish Naturalist. 293 



Chap. xiii. p. 93. — Extension in Tnverfiess. 



Sir Dudley Maijoribanks, Bart, of Guisachan, in a letter of 

 date 27th December 1879, says: ''Here — e.g. Guisachan — they 

 have nearly died out, — why, I cannot tell, for the country, from 

 its enormous stretches of the natural fir and birch, appears to 

 be peculiarly adapted to the bird. 



" Andersen — of fairy-tale note — sent me my first birds. Thirty- 

 nine arrived in safety, and I kept them for some months, when, 

 just as the breeding season was about to commence, two pole- 

 cats got into the enclosure and killed all but two cock-birds. 

 Afterwards I received several birds and more eggs from Tay- 

 mouth — this was after the Marquis's death — and we were fairly 

 successful in rearing young birds for two or three seasons ; 

 and then we gave the trouble up, thinking the bird was fairly 

 estabhshed; and now they have almost disappeared, if not 

 wholly so," 



Chap. xiv. p. 96. — Extension in Kincardineshire. 



Mr George Sim of Aberdeen informs me that one was shot 

 within three miles of Aberdeen — a female — in the autumn of 

 1879. It was on the south side of the Dee when killed, and 

 therefore in Kincardineshire. Mr Sim bought the bird from a 

 poulterer. This is an interesting record, bearing out my former 

 surmises as to the direction such extension would take in the 

 Valley of the Dee and Aberdeenshire. I would be glad to 

 receive similar data from any of my correspondents, or others, 

 as regards its further extension beyond the boundaries presently 

 occupied, as shown in the map accompanying my account of 

 the bird. 



Chap. XV. p. 98. — Extension in Ross- shire. 



One is stated to have been shot on the " heights of Monar," 

 near Beauly, about twenty years ago — say i860 — by one of 

 the shepherds of the district, as stated in a letter from Mr R. 

 Hornsby to Miss Dick Lauder of August 2, 1879. I would like 

 to know what became of this specimen. See also Appendix, 

 ante, p. 155. Is this the same bird said to have been "trapped 

 at Struy," or another ? The dates of the two certainly do not 

 agree, — the Struy one being " about fifty or sixty years ago," and 

 this ''about twenty years ago." 



