io8 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Haunts^ Lee does not, however, specify any nesting place in 

 "Forth," but his statement that the species "is a resident 

 in Scotland north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde " allows 

 for its presence in that part of Perthshire falling within our 

 area. In the course of the last twenty-five years I have 

 myself seen Mergansers on Loch Ard in the breeding season 

 on a number of occasions, and I have a note that eggs were 

 taken on an island near the head of the loch in 191 /. On 

 the same island Messrs Nash and Hamilton found a nest 

 on 1st June 1918; it contained eleven eggs, one of which 

 they kindly brought to me. 



No doubt the Red-breasted Merganser has bred on 

 other lochs in south-west Perthshire, besides those mentioned 

 above. On Loch Vennachar, for instance, I observed a 

 pair in the end of April 1892, and the same experience was 

 repeated in May 191 3. On Loch Leven, Kinross-shire, 

 a female was seen in May 1910, but I do not attach much 

 importance to that, as Mergansers not infrequently linger 

 in the Firth of Forth into May before departing for their 

 northern breeding haunts. 



It is no doubt true that the first authentic British eggs 

 of the Goosander were those obtained by Harvie-Brown 

 from Loch Ericht in the north of Perthshire, in 1871. 

 But are we to ignore that naturalist's own statement 

 {Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc, Glasgow, iv., 1880, p. 323) that he 

 knew a locality in Perthshire where this species had bred 

 regularly since about 1864? Then there is the reference 

 in More's paper in the Ibis for 1865 to a pair of "Golden- 

 eyes " having nested in a hollow tree at Loch Assynt 

 Sutherland. That the birds were Goosanders seems to me 

 highly probable, and Harvie-Brown long ago hinted as 

 much {Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc, Glasgow, ii., p. 121). As regards 

 the Merganser in the south-west of Scotland, it may be 

 pointed out that Gray and Anderson, in their Birds of 

 Ayrshire and Wigtoivnshire, 1869, state that it "breeds 

 sparingly in both counties." 



