156 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



a statement in the Elgin Courant of 24th May 1892, three 

 birds came, and one was killed in fight. I do not know what 

 authority there is for this. 



This year an Osprey was shot at Meyen, on Lower 

 Deveron. 



1891. The birds were not at Loch an Eilein ; they bred, 

 presumably at Loch Gamhna, and the eggs were taken. 



1892. The birds came to Loch an Eilein, but were "dis- 

 turbed," and left again. Harvie-Brown's statements about 

 this year are not clear. Apparently he says both that the 

 birds bred at Loch Gamhna, and also that he was told there 

 that the birds had not used the Loch Gamhna nest for ten 

 years. The same year also he was told by the keeper that 

 the Loch an Eilein nest was blown down, and yet the 

 same day he and Dunbar saw " plenty of nest," and an 

 Osprey flying there. The same month he saw evidence of 

 the shooting of an Osprey in that neighbourhood ; his text 

 does not say where, but his illustration places it in the 

 Richmond and Gordon property. He saw also another nest 

 in the middle of the Rothiemurchus forest. 



1893. The Osprey returned to Loch an Eilein at what 

 Harvie-Brown calls " their usual time, i.e., between the 15th 

 and 16th of April." Hinxman, however, writing to Harvie- 

 Brown, says, " their first appearance in spring is very regular 

 between 4th and 6th April." According to Hinxman, 

 only one bird came in 1893, and it stayed but a short time. 1 



In April 1893 the Zoological Society of London awarded 

 silver medals to Donald Cameron of Lochiel, and John Peter 

 Grant of Rothiemurchus, "in recognition of the efforts 

 made to protect the Osprey in their respective districts." The 

 John Peter Grant here referred to was the son of the second 

 Sir John Peter Grant, who had died in the preceding January. 

 The medals were to be presented on 22nd June, but the laird 

 died on nth June, and the present laird, also John Peter, 

 succeeded in the estate, and received the medal. 



1894. In August of this year my original set of notes 

 began. The birds had been seen in the spring, and reported 



1 W. Evans, who spent May and half of June at Aviemore, only 

 once saw an Osprey during that time. 



