THE SHOVELER AS A SCOTTISH BREEDING SPECIES i6i 



Tay. 



Breeds and is a winter visitor. 



North Fife. A nest of the Shoveler was found on Tentsmuir 

 in 1900 {^Vertebrate Faima of Tay and Strathmore, p. 234), and 

 Mr Berry of Tayfield, writing in 1899, says: "This year we have 

 seen as many as three pairs of Shoveler, and one pair is certainly 

 breeding ; it was a new-comer last year." He also informs us that 

 it has bred sporadically on the muir since, always in wet seasons; a 

 pair nested at Morton Loch near by in 191 3, and again in 1920. 

 There is no absolute breeding record from Lindores, but we have 

 twice seen Shoveler there in the breeding season. This year (1920) 

 they were flying round very anxiously, as if they had young in the 

 reed-bed. 



Forfar. Our knowledge of the breeding status of this duck in 

 Forfar is very unsatisfactory. Dr Harvie-Brown in the Vertebrate 

 Fauna of Tay and Strathmore, p. 234, says: "In 1905 I found it 

 far from uncommon on the further inland lochs of Rescobie and 

 Loch of Forfar"; this does not make it clear whether he found it 

 breeding or not. In 191 2 we saw eggs of the Shoveler which had 

 been taken in the Kirriemuir district, while in the same year a 

 Shoveler's nest with ten eggs was found at Kinnordy by Professor 

 L. R. Sutherland, who also reports one with eleven eggs at Rossie 

 Moor on 7th May 19 15 {in litt.). 



North and Central Perth. From about 1S75 Shoveler have 

 bred at Craigleith Moss, Murthly {Vertebrate Fauna of Tay and 

 Strathmore, p. 234), while in 1885 it is recorded as breeding 

 regularly at Methven and elsewhere in Perthshire {Scot. N'at., 

 1885-86, p. 369). By 1899 the Shoveler is recorded as compara- 

 tively common at Murthly, and Colonel Campbell says : " I was 

 not aware till this year that its range had extended to the Black 

 Mount, from which place I had specimens sent me; and as it has 

 evidently got a foothold, it will doubtless spread . . . over the 

 whole district" {A.S.N.H., 1899, p. 201). By the date of Dr 

 Harvie-Brown's volume on the Vertebrate Fauna of the Tay Aj-ea 

 and Strathmore (1906), p. 234, the Shoveler is described as: 

 " Undoubtedly an increasing breeding species through Strathmore 

 and elsewhere, as for instance at Methven Loch, where, Millais 

 tells me, there are about five pairs ; also at Kinnaird about 

 two piirs ; and other places, probably Lindores, Dupplin, and 

 Meikleour." We visited Dupplin Loch in 1919 but did not see the 

 species there, while Mr John Cramna, who has been an interested 

 observer for many years of the duck and other birds breeding on 

 105 AND 106 S 



