144 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



and once I could even perceive the yellow iris. 

 Altogether the bird was a gigantic representative 

 of the sparrowhawk Accipitcr nisus. 



In the neighbourhood of Gordon Castle, along 

 the lower district of Spey, or in the deer-forests 

 of Glenfiddich or Blackwater, I never observed 

 either the golden or the sea eagle, but I have 

 occasionally seen the osprey, Pandion lialitectus, 

 circling overhead, and following the course of the 

 river, although at a great height from the water. 

 A bird of this species frequently takes up his 

 quarters at Glenfiddich during the autumn, where 

 I rejoice to say he is now safe from persecution, 

 and where his depredations are exclusively con- 

 fined to the small trout that abound in the moun- 

 tain tributaries of the Spey. The Rev. Dr. 

 Gordon, in his notes of the fauna of Moray, 

 published some years ago in The Zoologist, says, 

 that the osprey used to build in the ruins of 

 Lochaneilan, Badenoch, and that a nest has also 

 been found at Almore, in Glenmore. The species 

 is, however, becoming rarer every day. Any one 

 who has had the good fortune to witness its grace- 

 ful flight and marvellous mode of fishing, will 

 regret its approaching disappearance, as an indi- 

 genous bird, from the British fauna ; and the same 

 remark applies to the kite miscalled Mil-vim 



