292 BIRDS OF ARRAN. 



introduced a few years before, and were then spreading over 

 the whole of the parish. Eagles, falcons, hawks, hooded 

 and carrion crows, ravens, owls, and magpies, once numerous, 

 wei-e being rapidly reduced, through premiums given by the 

 Duke of Hamilton for their destruction ; and, as a conse- 

 quence, small birds had greatly increased, to the prejudice of 

 garden fruits. Seven years afterwards, viz., in 1847, the 

 Rev. D. Landsborough published a very interesting volume 

 on Arran and its Natural History, in which various allusions 

 are made to birds, though no list is given ; and in 1852 

 there appeared a second series of excursions by the same 

 author, containing a review of the birds of Ailsa, and casual 

 references to those of Arran and the Cumbrae Islands. 

 Since that time, with the exception of a short paper in the 

 Zoologist for 1866, by my friend Mr. Alston, nothing, so far 

 as I can trace, has been published relating to the subject. 



In drawing up the following list, I have to express my 

 obligations to Mr. Halliday of Brodick, and Mr. Mackenzie 

 of Dougrie Lodge, from both of whom I have received much 

 useful information. 



CATALOGUE OF SPECIES. 

 124. RAPTORES. 



GOLDEN EAGLE (Aquila chrysaetos). All the older writers 

 on the zoology of Arran agree in referring to more than one 

 species of eagle as nesting in the island. It is not easy, how- 

 ever, to say with certainty at what time the golden eagle 

 ceased to rank as a native, and became, what it now in, a 

 rare and uncertain visitant. The locality is quite as attrac- 

 tive as it was a hundred years ago; and, so far as I can learn, 

 no eagles have been shot or trapped for a very long period. 

 The bird, therefore, must have been scared at a time when 

 premiums were persistently offered for its destruction a 



