68 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Nesting of the Wild Swan in West Perthshire. [The 



following letter, which appeared in The Field ol 17th April, explains 

 the mystery surrounding the off-and-on appearances on the part of 

 a pair of Whoopers at Loch Trieg in south-western Inverness-shire 

 during the spring and summer of 19 19, as recorded in the Scottish 

 Naturalist (19 19, p. 196). Loch Trieg lies only a few miles 

 beyond the north-western boundary of the county of Perth. The 

 only record of the breeding of this bird in the British Isles relates to 

 Orkney where it used to nest some 150 years ago. W. E. C] 



Sir, While fishing on a hill loch in West Perthshire last May 

 (1919), I saw a pair of Whooper Swans and their nest. As I cannot 

 find in any bird book to which I have access any record of these 

 Swans ever breeding on the mainland in Scotland, I think an account 

 of the nest in Perthshire may be of interest. From a protective point 

 of view the nest was very well placed. It was on a small island sur- 

 rounded by such deep, soft, peaty mud that no dog or fox could get 

 to it ; also the water was so shallow above the peat that no boat 

 could pass. I got to the nest by taking a board and an oar and 

 standing on one while I moved the other forward, then standing on it 

 and moving" the other, and so on. The nest was made entirely of moss, 

 and in the top was a cup fairly deep and lined with feathers. The 

 nest would have filled a small farm-cart. As I used to own the property 

 on which the loch is situated, and three generations of my family 

 owned it before me, I may say that if Whoopers had ever nested in 

 that part of the country before, in what I may call modern times, I 

 should certainly have heard of it. The keeper who was with me told 

 me that this pair nested in the same place the year before, and that 

 he had never heard of such an occurrence before. I enclose photo- 

 graphs. The one reproduced of the parent birds shows that erect 

 carriage of the neck which is one of the points in which the Whooper 

 differs from the Mute Swan. The white specks in the others are 

 feathers which had blown out of the nest. The nest itself is the 

 mound shown in each photograph. I had to leave Perthshire soon after 

 I saw the nest, but I have been informed since that there were four 

 eggs, and that the swans hatched successfully. E. H. Place. 



The Albany Club, Grahamstown. 



