68 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



some misapprehension, possibly confusion with one of the 

 Divers. In 1833 Selby, in his British Birds, ii. p. 394, says : 

 "Breeds on a few of the northern Scottish lakes." In 1889 

 when Mr Robert Read recorded what he believed to be the first 

 instance of the Great Crested Grebe breeding in Scotland, 

 the Editor of the Zoologist (1889, p. 386) added the following 

 supplementary note : " Mr Harvie-Brown writes that he has 

 long considered the fact of the Great Crested Grebe nesting 

 in Scotland to be well established, and is himself acquainted 

 with Scottish localities where it breeds. He thinks Mr Read 

 quite right in withholding indication of the precise spot 

 wherein he found the nest above referred to, and although he 

 is not aware that this bird breeds anywhere in Sutherland or 

 Caithness, he is of opinion that the northern Scottish Lakes 

 of Selby include an area sufificiently explicit for the informa- 

 tion of naturalists, or at all events for publication." This 

 one would take to be a definite statement of fact ; but when 

 we come to refer to the series of Faiinal Areas of Scotland, 

 edited by Dr Harvie-Brown, we find no indication of any 

 breeding place of the Great Crested Grebe north of the Tay 

 Area. In the volume On the Fauna of the Tay Basin and 

 Strathmore, published in 1906, we find the following : " Selby 

 relates that ' the Great Crested Grebe breeds on a few of the 

 northern Scottish lochs,' but, unfortunately, he gives no 

 indication whatever of the county or locality otherwise." 

 Dr Harvie-Brown would appear by this to have changed 

 his views; possibly he found, on further investigation, that 

 the records on which he based his first statement were 

 unreliable, or in order to protect the birds from the depreda- 

 tions of the collector, he purposely made the information he 

 supplied very vague. We are of opinion that too much 

 reliance should not be placed on Selby's statement, although 

 there are one or two nesting places in Perthshire of which 

 we have not been able to find the first date of colonisation, 

 and it is just possible that there may have been an early 

 home of the species in this county ; this, however, should 

 certainly be described as Central rather than Northern 

 Scotland. Jardine, in 1843, records that he " never met with " 

 the Great Crested Grebe "on the border in summer, and 



