THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE IN FORTH 49 



THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE IN FORTH. 



By William Evans, F.R.S.E,, M.B.O.U. 



It is now thirty-four years ago (June 1885) since, to my 

 surprise, I observed a pair of Great Crested Grebes on Loch 

 Gelly, Fife, under circumstances which left little doubt in 

 my mind that they were breeding there (see Ann. Scot. Nat. 

 Hist., 1894, p. 181). My surmise was borne out by their return 

 in subsequent years, the appearance of a brood in 1896, and 

 nestbuilding witnessed in 1898 by Mr R. Godfrey. On the 

 same page of the Annals as mine there is a note by 

 Mr Harry Gumming stating that he had received eggs taken 

 in Stirlingshire in April 1890, the locality being, I under- 

 stand, Carron Dam. Then we have Mr Oswin Lee's account 

 of a nest with eggs at Lake of Menteith, south-west Perth- 

 shire, in the end of April 1896 {Ajznah, 1897, p. 161). In 

 the same locality another nest with two fresh eggs was 

 found by myself on 21st May 1896, and I have seen others 

 in more recent years when several pairs have frequented 

 this sheet of water. I have a jotting to the effect that a 

 Great Crested Grebe was observed on Lake of Menteith in 

 1887, but cannot trace the origin of the note. 



In the course of the last twenty years one locality after 

 another has revealed the presence of the species in the 

 breeding season, and in several of them eggs have been 

 obtained or young seen. On i8th August 1906 there were 

 two pairs with broods of four and two respectively on 

 Camilla Loch, near Auchtertool, Fife, the young birds being, 

 so far as I could judge, scarcely half-grown. Such late 

 broods can only be accounted for by the loss of earlier ones. 

 At Loch Leven, where in July 1906 I had no less than 

 fourteen birds (mostly in pairs) in sight at the same time, 

 six nests were found on 5th July 1908 by Mr H. Raeburn, 

 who brought me an egg from one of them ; while on 14th 

 June 1 9 10 I saw two nests there. Loch Lubnaig, too, has 

 for some years been known to me as a breeding haunt ; in 

 191 2 a nest with eggs was found there as I was informed at 

 the time by Mr G. Blackwood. Coming to Midlothian, I 

 ^y AND 88 G 



