GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER IN SCOTLAND u 



chronological account of it has been drawn up — from 

 the decay and formation of our vast peat -mosses, visible 

 in its later stages in still hard roots and trunks. In his- 

 toric times, as we are informed in Menteith's " Forester's 

 Guide," p. li. — 



" For upwards of nineteen miles from beyond Tyndrum to 

 Tyanne on the King's House, through the upper or eastern portion 

 of Glenorchy, where decayed roots of trees, many of them of large 

 size, appear on each side of the road . . . and in banks of the rivers 

 and spreading over all the valleys, hills, moors, and mosses of 

 Scotland. . . . Much of these extensive forests were cut down 

 from various views, chiefly to prevent their affording shelter and 

 rallying points to those who maintained the independence of the 

 country. Also, the pasturing of sheep and want of enclosures where 

 they formerly existed, prevented their reproduction." 



Large woods were also cut down and burned by the 

 Danes ; and, by the orders of King Robert the Bruce, near 

 Inveraray in later times ; and on Speyside and elsewhere, 

 ruthless destruction went on by the York Building Com- 

 pany's operations, until the failure of that undertaking put a 

 stop to it. 1 Besides these causes, fire accidental or pre- 

 meditated undoubtedly had its share, as there is abundance 

 of evidence to show. 



At Guisachan and Strath Affaric we have the direct 

 testimony of one Rory Macdonald, who was an old smuggler, 

 and who was alive in 1880, but is since deceased, that when 

 smuggling was so largely carried on between 1840 and 

 i860, the smugglers made free use of all the decayed and 

 bored trees, at which the proprietors winked, provided they 



" Magog " — Girth at ground 16 feet. 



3 feet from ground 14 ft. 9 in. 

 6 ,, ,, 14 ft. 7 in. 



9 » „ 15 ft- 3 in- 



12 ,, ,, 16 ft. 8 in. 



15 >> » I7ft. 



Cubic contents of the 15 ft. =2 10 ft. 11 in. 



We have seen also in this collection drawings of " The Burnt Firs," near 

 Garvagh Bridge, in a limb of which are the borings of Woodpeckers ; and the 

 " Ospreys' Fir," with the nest on the top. The larger and finer specimens of pine 

 trees are found on the south side of the strath. 



1 By far the best account in detail of the proceedings of the York Company. 

 we believe, will be found in "The York Building Company ; a Chapter in Scotch 

 History," by David Murray, M.A., F.S.A. Scot. Glasgow: James Maclehosc 

 and Sons, 1S83. 



