NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 131 



breeding on the Carral side they are preserved, being in the Duke 

 of Sutherland's forest. One bird was taken in a pole-trap on my 

 ground, but they are not often caught that way, as they are, I 

 think more in the habit of perching on the side of any eminence 

 than on the top of it. § ' 



5. Iceland Falcon. Falco islandus, Gmel. — A line specimen, which 

 is in the Dunrobin Museum, was killed at Sciberscross, in 1868. 

 Another was taken some years back at Altnaharra, and is now in 

 the possession of Mr. Akroyd, who was the shooting tenant at that 

 time. 



6. Merlin. Falco aesalon, Tunstall. — A common bird on the 

 East coast, breeding in long heather, and returning, as I fancy most 

 Hawks do, to the same place year after year. In reference to what 

 is said in one of Mr. Harvie-Brown's papers on the number 

 of eggs in this bird's nest, I certainly never got more than four.* I 

 once got only three, on May 7th, 1872, and from this nest I shot the 

 male, but it is probable that the hen had not then finished laying. 



7. Kestrel. Falco tinnunculus, Lin. — Extremely common. In 

 a rocky channel through which the river Brora flows, there were, 

 nearly every year, three or four nests of . Kestrels within a very 

 limited space. One year, however, the keeper caught eight Kestrels 

 in one place in a pole-trap set for Hoodie Crows, which reduced 

 them a good deal, so in the breeding season I ordered the trap not 

 to be set in that place again. Kestrels leave this part of the 

 country entirely, or nearly so, in the winter. I never remember 

 seeing one then. 



Obs. — One Kestrel, or a pair, was observed for some time in 

 the month of January, near Attadale, on Lochcarron, in the west of 

 Ross-shire. 



8. Sparrow Hawk. Accipiter nisus (Lin.). — Very common in the 

 autumn, when many young birds appear about the fields on the 

 coast. Though, no doubt, it breeds commonly in the big woods 

 about Dunrobin, I only knew of one nesting-place in the Gordon- 

 bush woods, near Loch Brora. A small clump of tall spruce firs 

 stood close together, and here, year after year, a pair of Sparrow- 

 hawks built. I took the nest first in 1872, and after an absence of 

 seven years, went back in 1879, and took the eggs again. I 

 knew the hen and young ones had been shot on one or two 

 occasions between these years. 



* Proc, Jan. 31st, 1871, revised, May, 1875, vol. ii., part i., p. 76. 



