THE GOSHAWK. 37 



the owner, J. Rattray, Esq., having procured it in Orkney a short 

 time previously. 



Within a comparatively recent period, I have known the Gos- 

 hawk to breed in Kirkcudbrightshire, in which district my corre- 

 spondent, Mr Tottenham Lee, Jun., who was quite familiar with all 

 the British birds of prey, repeatedly saw the birds flying about. 

 Under the observation of that gentleman, a pair of ravens were 

 turned out of their nest by two Goshawks, who appropriated 

 it to their own use, and a second nest, built not far from this 

 locality, was situated in a tree. 



In the time of Pennant, this species was a well-known native 

 of the woods of Rothiemurchus, a locality in which it has since 

 repeatedly been obtained. It is likewise included in Don's list of 

 the birds of Forfarshire, without any restrictive remarks, shewing 

 that it had been sufficiently common to take a place among the 

 more familiar species of that county. In later years, however, it 

 must have decreased rapidly, although of occasional occurrence. 

 Mr Macgillivray mentions in his work on British birds, that Mr 

 Fenton of Edinburgh saw one which was shot in Forfarshire in 

 1825, and I lately examined a very handsome and perfect speci- 

 men at Glammis, in the same county, where it was caught, about 

 five years ago, in a pole trap. It had broken the chain, and 

 flown off with the trap at its foot, but the chain becoming 

 entangled in a whin bush, the bird was discovered, and, after a 

 fierce resistance, knocked on the head. The keeper in whose 

 possession this fine bird now is, had previously seen it hunting in 

 the vicinity, and described it to me as a very powerful bird, and 

 much more daring in its attacks than even the peregrine. 



Dr Smith of Edinburgh has obligingly sent me word that a 

 young male Goshawk was shot near Tynehead, Mid-Lothian, on 

 the 13th December, 1865, and that he exhibited the specimen at 

 a meeting of the Royal Physical Society. 



The most recent instance of the occurrence of the species in 

 any part of Scotland is that of a young bird which was shot near 

 Jedburgh on 12th November, 1869, and is now in the possession 

 of Lord Minto. 



Thirty years ago the Goshawk was a rare species in the parish 

 of Golspie, in Sutherlandshire, but it appears to have maintained 

 its hold in Morayshire after it had become a rarity elsewhere. 

 The late Mr St John, whose notes on the species appear to have 



