100 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



opposite side of the Slock, whence it was regularly inspected by the 

 keeper on the beat during five weeks. At the end of that time, the 

 eagles deserted the nest, and the keeper, acting under instruction 

 from the shooting tenant, climbed down to the eyrie and removed 

 the two eggs, which, when blown, were found to be addled, with no 

 trace of a chick in either. The keeper reports that the male eagle 

 was a fine, healthy bird, but his mate was evidently an aged one, 

 with shabby plumage. Perhaps her condition was the cause of 

 infertility in her eggs. The male eagle did most of the hunting, 

 and his prey, judging from remains round the eyrie, consisted 

 chiefly of blue hares. The keeper saw hardly any traces of grouse 

 or other birds having been taken. 



I think it must be admitted that praiseworthy measures were 

 carried out by Lord Ailsa and his people for the protection of this 

 interesting couple. No eagles have revisited the district in 1922. — 

 Herbert Maxwell, Monreith. 



Bird Notes from the Highlands. — During June, in the 

 course of a motoring tour, I met with several bird experiences in 

 the Highlands that seem worth recording. One of them may 

 indicate part of the wide area over which the Wood Wren is to be 

 found. I had been familiar with the bird in the Border counties 

 and in Argyllshire, especially round about Loch Awe, where it is 

 comparatively plentiful among the oak and birch woods. This 

 summer, however, it was met in localities that were new to myself 

 — near Glen Lyon, Kinloch-Rannoch, on the shore of Loch Eil, at 

 Invergarry, close to Loch Duich, in Glen Aff'ric, by Loch Laggan, 

 where one was heard in song from the hotel door, at Relugas on the 

 Findhorn, by the Garry above Struan, and in greater numbers at 

 Killiecrankie where three were singing near one spot. I saw and 

 listened to the notes of Tree-Sparrows at Inverlochy Castle, Fort- 

 William. For a week, a Quail called every night and morning of 

 our stay there from little hayfields close to Grantown-on-Spey. A 

 gamekeeper in Abernethy Forest told me that a pair of Great 

 Spotted Woodpeckers had nested there this summer, but the nest 

 was robbed. Another pair was seen by myself on several occasions 

 in a line of old aspens by the Highland Railway near Grantown. 

 From their anxious movements and cries they appeared to be 

 nesting, but unfortunately they shifted their quarters a few days 

 later. These instances may have their own interest in connection 

 with the recent increase as a nesting species of this Woodpecker in 

 Scotland. On Loch Laggan a bird was observed flying over the 

 surface of the water, which from its build and flight I am pretty 

 certain was a Widgeon drake. — Wm. M'Conachie, Lauder. 



