THE GADWALL AS A SCOTTISH BREEDING SPECIES 17 



of North Africa following the Nile Valley to the Sudan and 

 Abyssinia, Northern India (where it is very numerous), China 

 and Japan, Central Mexico, and Florida. 



Now, having regard to the principal European breeding 

 places of this species, we should expect the colonisation of 

 Scotland to proceed from east to west, and this is precisely 

 what would appear to be the case, at all events all the 

 records of nesting which we have so far bear out this view. 



Chronological List of the Scottish Breeding Places 



OF the Gadwall. 



1906. Rachan, Peeblesshire {Field, 28/7/06, p. 196). 



1909. Loch Leven, Kinross {A.S.N.B., 1909, p. 184). 



1912. Caithness {Scot. Nat., 1913, p. 44). 



1913. Ross-shire, Moray Area {Report on Scot. Orn., 1913, p. 15). 

 1913. N. Sutherland {Report on Scot. Orn., 1913, p. 15). 



1918. Loch, North-east Fife {Scot. Nat., 1918, p. 266). 



Tweed. 



The Gadwall is described by Mr Bolam in his Birds of 

 Northumberland and the Eastern Borders as a "rare winter visitant, 

 which, however, seems to be inclined to increase." There is one 

 breeding record for the area. 



Peeblesshire. In 1906 a pair of Gadwall bred at Rachan, near 

 Broughton {Field, 28/7/06, p. 196), but there is some doubt as 

 to whether these were genuinely wild birds. In Mr Bolam's work 

 a letter is given from Mr Henry B. Marshall, the owner of Rachan, 

 in which he states he had kept pinioned Gadwall on a small lake 

 there for many years, and they bred each season. The young 

 always disappeared leaving only the original pair. In 1906, 

 another pair appeared and hatched off a brood, but as far as he 

 knew none of them ever returned. It is quite possible that. these 

 were really wild birds, at the same time they may have been the 

 progeny of the pinioned pair, and therefore the record must be 

 accepted with reservations. We wrote to Mr A. C. Gairns, 

 Broughton, asking whether there had been any subsequent breeding 

 of the Gadwall in this locality, and he has kindly informed us 

 that it has not again been known to breed there. 



Forth. 



A rare winter visitor, but there is at least one breeding place 

 in the area. 



97 AND 98 C 



