PREFACE. 



SINCE the publication of the respective works of Sir William 

 Jardine, Professor Macgillivray, and Mr Selby, nothing in a 

 collected form on the Birds of Scotland has been brought under 

 the notice of ornithologists. Many useful and interesting papers 

 have no doubt appeared through various channels, but even the best 

 of these have been restricted within comparatively narrow limits, 

 so that a field, such as that chosen for the title of this volume, 

 may be said to have been hitherto almost unoccupied. 



It is now upwards of twenty years since I formed the design of 

 collecting materials for such a work, and during that interval it 

 may safely be said that no exertions have been spared to make 

 these materials serve a useful purpose. I have personally 

 visited nearly every locality mentioned, for the express object of 

 acquiring reliable information, and have made myself practically 

 familiar with the birds whose names are catalogued in these pages. 

 Having, besides, repeatedly traversed the entire coast line of 

 Scotland, as well as rambled over the greater portion of the inland 

 counties and their woodland and moorland solitudes, unusual 

 facilities have been afforded me of renewing my observations on 

 the habits of species, and on the various phases of bird life seen 

 from observatories so varied as our country presents. No part of 

 Great Britain, indeed, is more inviting to the ornithologist than 

 the western mainland of Scotland and its island dependencies 

 their mountains and rugged headlands being still frequented by 

 eagles and lordly peregrines; their inland waters and lone sea 

 shores visited by the stately swan; and their peaceful glens and 



