The Scottish Naturalist. 



Glen Lyon to the headlands of Barry and low-lying sands of 

 Tents Muir on the sea-coast, in the counties of Forfar and Fife, 

 covers a distance, as the crow flies, of nearly eighty miles; while, 

 taking it in the widest part, from the hills above Glen Artney to 

 the head of Glen Tilt on the borders of Aberdeenshire, we have 

 a distance of close on fifty. Having been asked to give my orni- 

 thological experience of this district, which I have been more or 

 less acquainted with all my life, I have endeavoured to do so — 

 at the same time feeling that I must fall far short of doing the 

 subject full justice, as it would require the joint observations of 

 the many, over a long series of years, to do so thoroughly. With 

 the assistance of friends, who have kindly given me information 

 where I have not been able to gather it myself, together with 

 what has fallen under my own immediate notice, I find that the 

 number of birds which reside in or visit the district, casually or 

 otherwise, amounts to 188, the distribution of which may be 

 taken as follows : — Resident species, 86. Of these 61 are regu- 

 lar, t 4 doubtfully so, and n sometimes leaving in winter and 

 becoming partially migrant. Of the birds of passage there are 

 62 species : 29 of these are summer, 23 winter, and 10 appear- 

 ing in autumn or spring, and doubtful as to remaining. In all, 

 148 of regular appearance. 1 Of the remaining 40 species, 31 

 are occasional or accidental, 6 doubtful, and of those supposed to 

 have escaped from domestication, 3. This does not include the 

 solitary instance of the Purple Waterhen {Porphyria smarag- 

 donotus) obtained on the Tay : see 'Scot. Nat.,' vol. iv. p. 37. 



REGULARLY RESIDENT. 



1 In the body of the list 149 are enumerated, arising from the accidental 

 numbering of one species, No. 16, Eagle Owl, which is now altogether omit- 

 ted as having been ascertained to have escaped from confinement. 



