PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 79 



formerly bred in Wales and North Derbyshire, but has ceased to breed there for two 

 hundred years, though it survived till nearly a century later in the Lake district 

 and on the Borders. It has been exterminated in the Lowlands of Scotland, but 

 owing to the protection received on the deer forests has greatly increased in 

 numbers of late years in the Highlands, and is now far from uncommon. A few 

 pairs also nest on the islands on the west coast, but not on the Outer Hebrides or 

 on the Orkneys (where a pair or two formerly bred), or Shetlands. In Ireland 

 it survived till recently in Donegal, Mayo, Connemara, Sligo and Kerry, but, 

 according to Mr. R. Warren, probably only one eyrie is now occupied. It is a 

 sedentary species, but the young wander about after leaving the nest. Outside 

 the British Isles it is thinly distributed in mountainous and thickly wooded districts 

 from the Atlas range in North-west Africa and Tunisia, to well within the Arctic 

 Circle in Scandinavia and Finland, as well as in North Russia. It is absent from 

 Denmark, North Germany, the Low Countries and the plains of France and 

 Hungary, but breeds in nearly all the great European mountain systems. In 

 Asia it ranges south to Asia Minor, the Caucasus and the Himalayas, but 

 apparently is represented by local races in Central Asia, and in North America 

 it ranges from Texas through New Mexico, Arizona and California to the Arctic 

 Ocean. [F. c. B. jr.] 



3. Migration. Resident in the few regions in the British Isles where it still 

 breeds (cf. preceding paragraph), but occasionally wandering even to the very 

 south of England. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nesting sites vary considerably, some birds 

 breeding in trees and others on more or less precipitous crags, occasionally on 

 steep hillsides. The nest is utilised year after year, but two or more alternative 

 sites are generally occupied in turn. Some are of enormous size, being added to 

 for many years, and are composed of sticks and branches, heather twigs, etc., lined 

 with grasses (Scirpus), heather tufts, moss and almost always clumps of the great 

 woodrush, Luzula sylvatica. (PL LXII.) The share of the parents in building has not 

 been recorded. The eggs in Scotland are usually two in number, sometimes only 

 one, and occasionally three. One instance in which four eggs were found in a nest is 

 recorded in the Ibis, 1861, p. 112. They vary considerably, some being white, 

 without markings, while others are blotched, spotted or marbled with varying 

 shades of reddish brown and underlying violet shellmarks. Sometimes one 

 handsomely marked and one white egg may be found in a clutch ; while some 

 varieties have the shell suffused with yellowish buff, or purplish grey. Average 



