294 BIRDS OF ARRAN. 



date it has not bred in Arran." I may here remark that the 

 eggs said to have been taken by Dr. Barry were sold iu 

 London by Mr. J. C. Stevens, in April 1861. A copy of the 

 catalogue from which I make the following extract is now 

 before me : " The osprey now no longer breeds in our 

 Highland lochs, and the bird itself is becoming extremely 

 scarce. One nest was taken in the presence of the late pro- 

 prietor in the Isle of Arran from the side of a precipice 

 overhanging North Sannox Glen (twenty fathoms over), only 

 six fathoms less than Goatfell in height." As I do not mean 

 to refer to this catalogue again, I have only to add that the 

 foregoing extract is sufficient to shew that it must have been 

 drawn up by some one who had never been in Arran, and 

 who certainly must have been thoroughly ignorant of the 

 habits of British osprey s. 



PEREGRINE FALCON (Falco peregrinus). Breeds every year 

 in various localities. The principal stations are Holy Island 

 (where the nest is nearly inaccessible), Maoldon, and Glen 

 Dubh. Until within recent years there was a nest on a cliff 

 in the Lesser Cumbrae; but through repeated disturbance 

 this station has been abandoned The following extract, 

 from a Historical Memoir of the Family of Eglinton and 

 Winton, by John Fullarton, Esq., published in 1864, 

 shews that the peregrines frequenting this haunt, and that 

 of the opposite cliffs in Ayrshire, had been reckoned of 

 some value: "In 1609 a complaint was brought before 

 the Privy Council by the Captain of Dumbarton Castle, 

 that Robert Hunter of Hunterston, and Thomas Boyd, 

 provost of Irvine, had gone to the Isle of Comra, 

 with convocation of the lieges, and tane away all the 

 hawks therein. It was decerned, 'That all the hawks 

 quhilk bred on the said isle do properly belong to the king, 

 and ocht to be forthcomand to his majestic, . . . and dis- 

 charges the said Robert Hunter and all others from meddling 

 therewith.' That this alludes to the island of the Lesser 

 Cumbrae, there need be no doubt, the greater island being 



