118 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



small pond near Tongue. From one locality in the north-east, a 

 correspondent sent me some of their eggs, telling me he had never 

 seen such before. They are common about Dunrobin, where they 

 are known to the keepers. 



COMMON COOT. 



FULICA A TEA, Linnaeus. 



The distribution of this species is very similar to that of the last 

 named. Mr Crawford has observed them, though not regularly, 

 on the same pond as that on which he found the Water-hens, 

 and remarks : " I have not seen the Bald Coot anywhere else 

 throughout the district." 



Order viii., AN SERES. Fam. i., ANA TIB A E. 



GEEY-LAG GOOSE. 



ANSER FERUS (Gmelin). 



As is now well known to ornithologists, this is the only species 

 of Wild Goose found breeding in Scotland. " As in Sutherland 

 the Grey -lag Goose has been mistaken for the Bean Goose, and the 

 more recent observations of the late Mr J. WoUey have con- 

 clusively proved that only one species at present breeds in the 

 north of Scotland " (Mr A. G. More, in " Ibis," 1865, p. 441); and 

 the same remarks apply as regards the Hebrides, as ascertained 

 since Macgillivray's time. 



The Grey-lag Goose is still a plentiful species, but I am sadly 

 afraid it will before very long, unless stringent measures be taken, 

 become extinct as a breeding species in Sutherland, as the nests 

 are constantly pillaged, and the birds shot by keepers and others 

 at every opportunity. I plead guilty, in one instance only, of 

 having shot a female from her nest, in order to obtain a specimen. 

 On one loch, a person told me that he killed no less than ten old 

 Geese, shooting them on the same day, as they rose from their 

 nests — thus destroying altogether about sixty birds, young and 

 old, allowing five eggs to each sitting bird. In this particular 

 locality they seem again to have increased in numbers, whereas, in 

 most places, only an occasionally solitary nest is found. On the 

 islands of this loch I believe more geese breed annually than any- 

 where else in Scotland, at least in proportion to the area. 



