The Scottish Naturalist. 307 



himself assured me, that there was no season of the year in which 

 native birds were not to be found in the woods there. 



1 05. Gallinago scolopacina, Gould. (Common Snipe.) 



The Snipe breeds pretty generally throughout the district. In 

 September and October they are augmented by accessions from 

 the Continent, but owing to drainage and other causes — chiefly 

 the destruction of their eggs by egg-collectors on their breeding- 

 grounds, not only in this country but in the north of Europe, 

 to supply the Paris and London egg- dealers — they have become 

 greatly reduced in numbers ; so great a trade, indeed, is there, 

 that I had once shown to me, when travelling in Shetland, a box 

 containing no less than two hundred Snipes' eggs, all blown in 

 the most approved manner, and ready to be sent off to a dealer 

 in London, in execution of an order ; and besides these there were 

 a host of others of various species, such as Golden Plover, Red- 

 shanks, Dunlins, and many others. On the tidal banks of the 

 Tay, where some years ago the Snipe were pretty plentiful, they 

 have now almost entirely disappeared ; and the few that do come 

 are so continually fired at by shooters from the neighbouring 

 towns, that they never get a moment's rest. 



106. LiMNOCRYPTES GALLiNULA, Kaup. (Jack-Suipe.) 



This is entirely a winter visitant, and though nowhere very 

 numerous, is generally spread throughout the district. On the 

 banks of the Tay they used to be pretty abundant, but owing to 

 the gradual rise of the ooze, and consequent hardening of the 

 surface, these birds requiring much softer ground than the com- 

 mon Snipe, they now seldom come. Their arrival, at least in 

 the lower part of the district, as far as my observation goes, is 

 very regular, taking place almost to a day, generally about the 

 5th of October ; and on one occasion only have I met with it as 

 early as the 29th of September. Mr Horn, however, states that 

 he has shot them on the 12th of August in Strathtay. This very 

 early date would lead one almost to suppose that these birds 

 which he saw must have been bred in the district — a fact in this 

 country, I believe, never yet positively ascertained. 



Phalaropus fulicarius, Bonap. (Grey Phalarope.) 



A single specimen of this bird is mentioned by Mr Horn as 

 having been obtained in Glen Lyon by Mr E. T. Booth. There 



